The body of leading forensic pathologist, professor Stoicho Radanov (76), was found hanging at a kindergarten playground in Sofia's Ivan Vazov neighbourhood in the early hours of October 17 2008, news agencies reported.

The Interior Ministry has identified the body as Radanov and said that most likely it was a case of suicide, Bulgarian-news agency Focus said.

Besides his research work, which includes numerous publications, Radanov's name was involved in a row several months ago on two court cases of great public interest. One of the cases was about the death of Angel Dimitrov, also known as "Chorata" and the other about the death of teenage sisters Rositsa and Hristina Belneiski.

Radanov had worked on both cases as the forensic specialist. In both cases he made comments in the media before the end of the expertise, which was the reason for the defence teams on both cases to ask for his removal from the case. His statements won him the criticism of some of his professional colleagues, who expressed doubts about the ways he worked.

The Chorata case
Alleged drug dealer Dimtrov was arrested by a team of five policemen of Blagoevgrad regional anti-organised crime unit in 2005 as part of special operation Respect.

Dimitrov died while in custody. At first the then-interior minister Roumen Petkov defended the five claiming that Dimitrov died of a heart attack, which was said to have been caused by the shock of the detention.

The fifth coroner report, presented by Radanov in February 2007, however, said that Dimitrov had died after being seriously beaten. The problem was that he said so before the report was accepted and reviewed by the court.

Based on the report and other evidence, the five police officers, who have always claimed to be innocent, were sentenced to a total of 82 years in prison, which they said would appeal.

The Belneiski case
The brutal death of the two teenage sisters Rositsa and Hristina Belneiski from the town of Pazardjik shocked Bulgaria in January 2006. They were found dead in the outskirts of the town and provoked deep public discontent.

Despite police efforts the case still remains unsolved with not a single suspect. The first version claimed that the two sisters were raped and murdered. In May 2008, a team led by Radanov concluded that the sisters might have died as a result of a road accident which caused much debate and accusations of lack of expertise that might have jeopardised the whole case.