Pesticides play a pivotal role in the development of agriculture, as they prevent the proliferation of pests and disease vectors in crops. However, there are several controversies regarding their use, as some are highly toxic to humans and frequently used illegally as chemical weapons. In this study, two criminal cases of alleged pesticide poisoning were investigated to establish whether there was an attempted murder (Case 1) and to determine the cause of death (Case 2). A sample of gastric content (Case 1) was extracted with QuEChERS salts, whereas the samples of Case 2, which include hair, nail and an aliquot of gastric contents were analysed without previous extraction. All samples (extracted and unextracted) from Case 1 were analysed by ESI and DART ionization using an Orbitrap mass spectrometer. Case 2 samples were analysed using only DART-HRMS, due to the limited sample available. The ESI-HRMS technique did not detect pesticides in the unextracted gastric content. However, terbufos and terbufos sulfoxide were identified in the gastric content extract. On the other hand, DART-HRMS confirmed the presence of terbufos sulfoxide and carbofuran in the unextracted gastric content and detected carbofuran in the nail sample. The hair sample exhibit no positive results for any exogenous substance. The results suggest that both techniques efficiently provide insight for further confirmatory analysis in the elucidation of forensic cases. However, the DART source seems to be an approach that circumvents the need for pre-treatment of solid and liquid samples.

农药在农业发展中发挥着关键作用，因为它们可以防止农作物中害虫和病媒的扩散。然而，它们的使用存在一些争议，因为有些对人类具有剧毒，并且经常被非法用作化学武器。在本研究中，对两起涉嫌农药中毒的刑事案件进行了调查，以确定是否存在谋杀未遂（案件 1）并确定死亡原因（案件 2）。使用 QuEChERS 盐提取胃内容物样本（案例 1），而案例 2 的样本（包括头发、指甲和胃内容物的等分试样）无需事先提取即可进行分析。案例 1 中的所有样品（提取的和未提取的）均使用 Orbitrap 质谱仪通过 ESI 和 DART 电离进行分析。由于可用样本有限，案例 2 样本仅使用 DART-HRMS 进行分析。ESI-HRMS 技术未检测到未提取的胃内容物中的农药。然而，在胃内容物提取物中鉴定出特丁磷和特丁磷亚砜。另一方面，DART-HRMS证实未提取的胃内容物中存在特丁磷亚砜和呋喃丹，并在指甲样品中检测到呋喃丹。头发样本没有显示出任何外源性物质的阳性结果。结果表明，这两种技术都有效地为澄清法医案件的进一步验证性分析提供了见解。然而，DART 源似乎是一种无需对固体和液体样品进行预处理的方法。