Investigation of bodies recovered out of water is a complex but frequent medico-legal
task. The key problem is if the victim died due to drowning or by the means of other cause
and placed in water. At the moment, the diagnosis of drowning is based on some unspecific
findings during autopsy (lung distension and the presence of froth in upper airways and
lungs) and the results of laboratory tests. Our project aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the
determination by ICP-MS of trace elements (TE ) in blood of the cardiac cavities of corpses
found in aquatic environment as a tool to increase the certainty of the diagnostic of death
by drowning. Blood samples were collected from 18 cadavers found in water, from 2006-
2008, in Oporto area. The advantage of ICP-MS compared to other instrumental analytical
techniques is clear and it proved to be useful. It allowed us to perform a multielemental
analysis of blood, and the results highlight the importance of this kind of approach, compared to previous studies where we are dependent on the results of a single TE