New Method for Determination of Postmortem Interval: Citrate Content of Bone

• NCJ Number: 232886
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 55 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2010 Pages: 1516-1522
• Author(s): Henry P. Schwarcz, Ph.D.; Kristina Agur, B.Sc.; Lee Meadows Jantz, Ph.D.
• Date Published: November 2010
• Length: 7 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the citrate content in bones.

Abstract

Few accurate methods exist currently to determine the time since death (postmortem interval, PMI) of skeletonized human remains found at crime scenes. Citrate is present as a constituent of living human and animal cortical bone at very uniform initial concentration (2.0 +/- 0.1 wt percentage). In skeletal remains found in open landscape settings (whether buried or not), the concentration of citrate remains constant for a period of about 4 weeks, after which it decreases linearly as a function of log(time). The upper limit of the dating range is about 100 years. The precision of determination decreases slightly with age. The rate of decrease appears to be independent of temperature or rainfall but drops to zero for storage temperature less than 0 degrees C. (Published Abstract)