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Introduction: Outdoor postmortem animal scavenging is frequent and the predators responsible vary from ants,
foxes, bluebottles to monitor lizards. Postmortem scavenging by water monitors is not uncommon. The water
monitor (Varanus salvator) is a large lizard native to South East Asia. The sub species V.s salvator, is limited to Sri
Lanka and are efficient carnivores and scavengers. Therefore, there is significant impact on forensic death
investigations
Case report: Case 1: A woman went missing. A vigorous search lead to the recovery of the body in a river,
surrounded by water monitors. Injuries on the limbs simulated cut injuries. The skull had a depressed slashed cut
exposing brain matter. Case 2: The dead body was located by searching along a path formed by water monitors. The
neck injuries simulated cut throat. These two cases are discussed to highlight the medico-legal implications of water
monitors in forensic death investigations.
Conclusion: The presence of water monitors can be helpful in locating a missing body. However, it is necessary to
interpret postmortem features cautiously in such cases as injuries caused by water monitors may resultin artifacts,
make injury interpretation difficult, make identification difficult, pose challenges to ascertaining the cause of death,
and move objects from the scene.
