‘‘A postmortem artifact is regarded as any change produced in
the body or any feature introduced into the body, after death that
often leads to much confusion about its nature and causation,
and often results in misinterpretation of medicolegally significant
antemortem findings or is itself wrongly considered as a significant
antemortem finding’’.1
Forensic experts use their expertise to identify artifacts and
avoid their misinterpretation. Identification of artifacts is vital
to ensure justice, as any misinterpretation of findings can derail
the investigation. Though various artifacts have been reported,
artifacts that resemble a gunshot wound are rarely described in
the literature. Such artifacts when encountered may lead to
erroneous conclusions.2 We hereby report a case where an artifact
resembled a shotgun injury, and raised a suspicion of an
alleged homicide.