Time of Death and Changes After Death, Part 1: Anatomical Considerations (From Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation, Fourth Edition, P 87-127, 2006, Werner U. Spitz and Daniel J. Spitz, eds. -- See NCJ-214126)

• NCJ Number: 214130
• Author(s): Joshua A. Perper
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 41 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Issue Overview; Instructional Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter discusses changes in the human body after death that can assist in determining the time of death.

Abstract

In discussing the definition of death, the chapter notes modern developments in resuscitation and life-sustaining methods and equipment and the nature of irreversible brain death. Subsections of the chapter's section on the definition of death discuss the pathology of brain death and persistent vegetative state, the medicolegal implications of the determination of death, the determination of death and survivorship, the death certificate and the determination of the cause and manner of death, embalmment and exhumation, and incineration and cremation. A major section of the chapter then discusses postmortem changes in the body and the determination of the time of death. The author notes that following death, numerous physicochemical changes occur in the body that lead to the dissolution of all soft tissues. The medicolegal importance of these postmortem changes is related primarily to their sequential nature, which can be used in determining the time of death. Postmortem bodily changes discussed are the cooling of the body; changes in the eyes; the settling of blood due to gravitational forces within dilated, toneless capillaries of the skin; and muscle flabbiness followed by the increasing rigidity of the muscular mass, succeeded by a gradual return to flabbiness. Other factors that can assist in determining time of death are stomach contents, decomposition, changes in organs rich in enzymes, and a foul smell produced from decomposition. Other changes in the body over time include postskeletanization weathering changes; and mummification and the production of a fatty, waxy substance (adipocere). Stillbirths are discussed in a separate section. The concluding section notes some factors that may mistake injuries prior to death with postmortem changes, thus leading to a faulty conclusion about time of death. Extensive photographic illustrations and 30 references