36 admitted to Guararpes hospital for persons with mental illness 3 days ago and this morning his mother went to visit him [and found him] having a nervous breakdown, with his nose bleeding and signs of physical abuse. He died today at 11.30 am in said hospital in Sobral - [Ceará].” It is a dun-colored male body with dark hair, thick mustache, and shaved beard, wrapped in a white sheet. It exhibits generalized rigor mortis, dilated pupils, hypostasis on the back and no vital signs. External Examination: excoriations in the area of the nose, right shoulder, anterior aspect of knees and left foot, ecchymosis around left eye, homolateral shoulder and fists (consistent with restraint).” Internal Examination: no signs of internal traumatic injuries; pulmonary edema and congestion are present, with no other macroscopic alterations of medico-legal interest in all other organs in those cavities. Samples of lung, heart, stomach, liver, and kidney were sent for histopathologic examination. Results revealed mild pulmonary congestion and pulmonary edema, pulmonary hemorrhage and mild-to-moderate liver steatosis. CONCLUSION: […] we infer that it is a death of unknown cause. Answers to the following questions: 1- [FIRST - Was there death?]; yes. 2-[SECOND - What was the cause of death?]; unknown. 3-[THIRD - What was the instrument or means employed that caused the death?]; no evidence to answer the question. 4-[FOURTH - Was it caused by poison, fire, explosion, asphyxia or torture or any other insidious or cruel means?]; no evidence to answer the question. Without further ado, the person in charge was ordered to complete the report, which, after being read and approved, was duly signed.46 112(15) Subsequently, on February 17, 2000, in response to a request from the Attorney General’s Office for the physicians who performed the autopsy to “determ[ine] whether the injuries [found on the body] m[ay] have been the result of bumps or falls suffered [by Mr. Damião Ximenes-Lopes],” the Medico-Legal Institute elaborated on its conclusions and informed that “the injuries described [in the post-mortem examination report] were caused by a blunt instrument (or by multiple bumps or falls) and that it was impossible to identify the precise manner in which they were caused.”47 112(16) In 2002, the Quinta Sala Civil del Juzgado de Sobral (Fifth Civil Chamber of the Trial Court in and for Sobral) (hereinafter, “the Fifth Civil Chamber ”), during the civil proceedings relating to the death of Mr. Damião Ximenes-Lopes, ordered that the body of the alleged victim be exhumed in order to establish the cause of his death (infra paras. 112(52) and 112(54)). The exhumation was carried out on April 6, 2002 by the Instituto Médico Legal Dr. Walter Porto (Dr. Walter Porto Medico-Legal Institute). The post-exhumation examination report contained the following description: We exhumed and autopsied the body of Mr. Damião Ximenes-Lopes at 10.10 am of [April] 6, 2002 at São Raimundo Cemetery in the Municipality of Varjota - Ceará, at the request of judge Maria Valdenisa de Sousa Bernardo in and for Sobral, pursuant to official letter No. 372/2001[. …] After having identified the place where the victim was inhumed, the vault was opened, where we observed a wooden coffin in bad condition, which contained the remains of the victim in an advanced state of decomposition; i.e. we only found the 46 Cf. report of the corpus delicti examination - post-mortem- conducted on Damião Ximenes-Lopes at the Instituto Médico Legal Dr. Walter Porto (Dr. Walter Porto Medico-Legal Institute) on October 4, 1999, supra note 44. 47 Cf. official letter No.173/2000 from the Instituto Médico Legal Dr. Walter Porto (Dr. Walter Porto Medico-Legal Institute), dated February 17, 2000 (record of appendixes to the application, appendix 44, page 251).