A Birch Tree as a Witness in a Murder and Cannibalism Case

Abstract

Fifteen years after a murder and an act of cannibalism, the police in Szczecin have conducted an investigation, in which neither the time of the murder, nor the victim identity were known, no body was found, and the defendants have not confessed. Due to the circumstantial nature of the investigation and the trial, a number of analyses were performed, and expert opinions were requested as part of the inquiry. A dendrochronological study of a birch tree growing on the shore of Lake Żabie was one of the analyses lending credibility to the testimony of one of the defendants and pointing to the murder site. The aim of this study was to determine the age and size of the birch tree in the 1998–2002 period, and to determine whether the tree was a distinctive feature of the landscape through the period in question. Field work was performed in April 2019, under the supervision of the police. The birch tree was measured and samples collected using a Pressler borer. The measurements and observations revealed that the birch tree, due to its size, and the absence of other trees of this species in this segment of the lake shore, may have been a characteristic landscape element in the late 1990s and early 2000s. According to the police officer and the prosecutor in charge of the case, the results of the dendrological analysis have lent a strong credibility to the testimony of one of the defendants and other findings of the investigation.