outline

 definition of death
 Types of death
 Differences between: cause..mode..manner
 Body changes after death.
 Mechanisms of algor mortis, rigor mortis,
Livor mortis
 types of decomposition
 Medico-legal aspects in post mortem changes
 Determination the time of death
 DEATH
• Forensic Thanatology : deals with all aspect of the
death.
• Death is the end of dying. It is a process rather than
an event except in the exceptionally rare situations
where death may be almost instantaneous such as in
case of crushing of the brain in a vehicular accident .

• *process means not all cells death together (brain

die first then gradually other tissues will be dead).
 The 7 Life Processes

-Movement
-Reproduction
-Growth
Death
-Respiration The absence of the 7 vital life
-Nutrition processes!
-Excretion
-Sensitivity
Death
 The irreversible cessation of all integrated functioning of the
human organism as a whole, mental or physical

 legally defined as the irreversible cessation of function of 3 systems:

( the “tripode” of life )
(1) CNS
(2) RS
(3) CVS

Before the 1960’s, death was diagnosed only by cardio-

pulmonary criteria: CNS criteria are new to the list.
Types of deaths:
two types of death:
 Deaths categories:
• 1-Somatic death (systemic or  violent deaths
clinical death) (accidents, suicides, and
homicides)
• 2-cellular death (molecular  suspicious deaths,
sudden
death)  unexpected deaths
• Brain Death.  deaths without a
physician in attendance
• supravital period  deaths in an institution.
(intermediary life)
 Somatic Death
• Somatic death is the death of the body as whole.
• when there is cessation of vital processes of the body. This is
referred to as somatic death (systemic or clinical death), which is
followed by progressive disintegration of body tissues and is
called as cellular or molecular death.

• the person irreversibly loses its sentient personality, being

unconscious, unable to be aware of (or to communicate with) its
environment, and unable to appreciate any sensory stimuli or to
initiate any voluntary movement.
• In the absence of circulation and respiration, different cells die their
molecular deaths at different times after the somatic death.
• Death of the brain cells stand first that are most sensitive to oxygen
deprivation and therefore usually begin to die within about 5 minutes
of somatic death.
• Then may come the organs like lungs, liver, kidneys and heart, which
need to be removed for transplantation at the earliest possible,
maximally within about an hour.
• The striped muscles can survive for hours and tissues like hair and
nails for days.
• Practically speaking, the organs like lungs, liver, kidneys and heart,
etc. Have to be removed for the purposes of transplantation even
before occurrence of somatic death by maintaining the donor on
artificial aids after declaration of the brain-stem death because any
lack of oxygenated blood-supply will soon make them unsuitable for
transplantation purposes.
Clinical Death
From the point of view of medicine, is preceded with the heart beat
cessation.
Visible signs of the state of failure of the living organism actions such
as heart beating, respiratory function or blood circulation.
It lasts for about four minutes, and it is the interval in which life can
be brought back through CPR. After a short few minutes, death is
permanent, because the state of the body has gone from clinical
death to...
Brain Death
The actual number of minutes for which total anoxia will cause
cortical damage is controver- sial; it was formerly held that 3
minutes was sufficient, but this time has been extended to 7 or 9
minutes.

After few minutes, the brain can’t be brought back to life

by any means available today
Brain Death
• A three criteria for determining permanent non-function of
the brain:
I. Unreceptivity and unresponsivity
II. No movements or breathing
III. No reflexes
• And an added confirmatory test proposed was ‘a flat’ or
isoelectric electroencephalogram(EEG)
• Currently, brain-stem has been the focus of attention where
vital centers are situated because various strata of brain behave
differently in their response to oxygen deprivation.
• Therefore, circumstances may be there, where cortex has been
damaged but the lower brain including brain-stem is still
functioning. In such a state, the victim will exist in a ‘vegetative
state’, the so-called ‘living cadaver’. The victim can remain in
deep coma for a considerable period; may be for years. but they
are not on life-support machines.
• A cadaver is a dead human body used in scientific or medical
research. Cadaver comes from the Latin verb, which means “to
fall."
• However, when brain death spreads below the
tentorium, i.e. when base of the brain including
midbrain, pons and medulla suffer damage, the
loss of vital centers and consciousness will cause
the victim not only to be irreversibly comatose
but also to be incapable of spontaneous
breathing. Without medical intervention, the
cardiac arrest invariably follows within minutes
and then the usual process of ‘cellular death’
progresses.
• Once irreversible damage to the brain-stem
has been established, the victim is dead in the
somatic sense, though not yet dead in the
cellular sense. the loss of the 'vital centres' that control
respiration, and of the ascending reticular activating system
that sustains consciousness, cause the victim not only to be
irreversibly comatose, but also to be incapable of
spontaneous breathing and the heart stops …. Need life
support machines

• It is through this ‘physiological gap’ that the

advances in removing the organs from the
cadavers for the transplantation purposes have
broken through. , not yet dead in the cellular sense
Brainstem Death
Brainstem death is clinical syndrome defined by the absence of reflex
with pathways through the brainstem-the stalk of brain which
connect the spinal cord to the mid-brain, cerebellum and cerebral
hemisphere- in a deeply comatose, ventilator- dependent patient.

No Abnormal Decorticate or Decerebrate

postures should be present
Decorticate
Decorticate posture is an abnormal posturing in which
a person is stiff with bent arms, clenched fists, and legs
held out straight. The arms are bent in toward the body
and the wrists and fingers are bent and held on the
chest.

 Decerebrate
Decerebrate posture is an abnormal body posture that
involves the arms and legs being held straight out, the
toes being pointed downward, and the head and neck
being arched backwards. The muscles are tightened and
held rigidly. This type of posturing usually means there
has been severe damage to the brain
• The structural and functional damage of brain-
stem may be diagnosed depending upon the
following observations:
I. Absence of spontaneous breathing
II. Dilated fixed pupils, not responding to sharp changes in
intensity of incident light.
III. Absence of motor responses within the cranial nerve
distribution on painful stimulation.
IV. Absence of corneal reflexes.
V. Absence of vestibulo-ocular reflexes.
VI. Absence of gag reflex or reflex response to bronchial
stimulation by a suction-catheter passed down the
trachea.
VII. Absent of the oculo-cephalic reflex
Cellular Death
• cellular death, death of cells and tissues individually , they no
longer function or metabolic activity, primarily aerobic respiration
(the utilization of oxygen)
• Different tissues die at different rates, the cerebral cortex being
vulnerable to only a few minutes' anoxia, whereas connective
tissues and even muscle survive for many hours, even days after
the cessation of the circulation
 Supravital period
• Clinical death vs biological death
• Clinical death : is a phenomenon in which pulse rate and
beating of heart stop their function.
• biological death : occurs due to the degeneration of
tissue or cells. In such type of death, organs become dead
just after the death and thus, organs are not used for the
transplantation.
• Supravital period: the period between the clinical death
and the biological death, which there is some tissues still
survival after circulation arrest (clinical death). And it is an
important period in case of organs transplantion.
Diagnosing Death Is Important Medico-Legally :

• To detect the cause of death.

• To know the time of death
• For social reasons
• For organ donation
• For recognizing apparent death
• For statistical reasons
• For heritage reasons
 Apparent Death
• Failure to detect heart beat or respiration by auscultation, and must be accompanied by the
demonstration of electrocardiogram(ECG) and electroencephalogram(EEG).
• The condition where the person may appear to be dead due to the fact that the vital
functions are at such a low pitch as to be minimum compatible with life, is known as
suspended animation or apparent death. A state of suspended animation that mimics death;
it occurs in:
– Electrocution
– Hypothermia (Operations are being undertaken after lowering the body temperature artificially)
– Sun stroke
– Drowning
– Drug overdose (e.g. barbiturates)
– Head injury
– new born infant (may not show any obvious signs of life yet prompt resuscitation may bring them
to life).
– As a voluntary act (death trance) practitioner of yoga

• we can know if it is true death only by ECG and EEG

The cause vs the mode of death
This is particularly important in relation to the documentary
certification of deaths
• The cause of death: Cause of death is the injury, disease, or
combination of the two that initiates a train of physiological
disturbances (brief or prolonged), resulting in the termination of an
individual’s life.

• The mode of death : an abnormal physiological state that existed

at the time of death “produce by the cause”
• I.e: three modes of the death depending upon the system involved :
• Coma, i.e. failure of functions of brain.
• Syncope, i.e. failure of functions of heart.
• Asphyxia, i.e. failure of respiratory system.
• The Mechanism of Death : refers to the physiological
derangement or biochemical disturbance in relation to death. It
includes such entities like metabolic acidosis and alkalosis, sepsis,
toxaemia or paralysis.
 Manner of death
 In addition to the mode and cause of death, here is also the
manner of death, which is not really a medical decision.
Manner refers to the circumstantial events and is a legal
categorization:
1. Natural ( death results from some disease )
2. Unnatural (if results from an injury )
Accident
Homicide
Suicide
undetermined (2-5%)
For Example

• An individual can die of massive hemorrhage (the mechanism

of death) due to a gunshot wound to the heart (the cause of
death), with the manner of death being homicide (somebody
shot the individual), suicide (they shot themselves), accident
(the weapon fell and discharged), or undetermined (one is not
sure what occurred).
 Body changes after death.
 Initially these changes can only be detected biochemically as
the metabolism in the cells alters to autolytic pathways.
Eventually the changes become visible and these visible
changes are important for two reasons:

1. because a doctor needs to know the normal progress of

decomposition so that he does not misinterpret these normal
changes for signs of an unnatural death

2. because they can be used in determining how long the

individual has been dead.
Post-mortem signs of death can be
roughly estimated by:
• Immediately :
I. Insensibility and loss of the voluntary power.
II. Cessation of respiration and circulation.

• Early :
I. Facial pallor and changes in the skin
II. Primary flaccidity of the muscles
III. Changes in the eye
IV. Algor mortis (postmortem cooling)
V. Livor mortis (postmortem hypostasis)
VI. Rigor mortis (postmortem stiffening)

• Late:
I. Puterfaction or decomposition
II. Adepocere
III. Mummification
Early Changes
Eye

• Loss of corneal and light reflexes.

• Opacity of the cornea.
• Mid-dilated pupils.
• Irregular size and shape of the pupils (anisocoria). (Due
to rigor mortis )
• loss of intraocular tension. ( because it is depends upon
the arterial pressure)
• The retinal vessels show the break up or fragmentation
of the columns of blood, which is called ‘trucking’ or
‘shunting’( the earliest positive sign of death)
• Eyelids usually closed incompletely.( due to
primary flaccidity of the muscle )
Tache noire: where the sclera remains exposed
to air, two black triangular spots appear at
each side of the cornea (due to drying).
 Muscles
• The muscles rapidly become flaccid (primary flaccidity), with complete loss of
tone, but they may retain their reactivity and may respond to touch and other
forms of stimulation for some hours after cardiac arrest.
• Discharges of the dying motor neurons may stimulate small groups of muscle
cells and lead to focal twitching, although these decrease with time.
• Loss of muscle tone in the sphincters may result in voiding of urine; this is such a
common finding that

Skin
 The fall in blood pressure and cessation of circulation of the blood
usually render the skin, conjunctivae and mucous membranes
pale.
 The skin of the face and the lips may remain red or blue in colour in
hypoxic/congestive deaths.
 The hair follicles die at the same time as the rest of the skin and
there is no truth in the belief that hair continues to grow after death,
although the beard may appear more prominent against a pale skin.
 Stomach
• Regurgitation is a very common feature of terminal collapse
and it is a common complication of resuscitation.

• Gastric contents are identified in the mouth or airways in up

to 25 % of all autopsies.

• The presence of this material cannot be used to indicate that

inhalation was the cause of death unless it is supported by
eyewitness accounts or by the microscopic identification of
food debris in the peripheral airways.
 Body Cooling/ Algor Mortis
 Its translated from Latin as “cold death” and describes the postmortem
temperature changes after someone has died.
 After death, the individuals no longer produce body heat or cooling
mechanisms
 normal body temperature when taken orally (36-37.2 C = 96.7-99F)
Rectally (36.5-37.5C) … when the rectal temperature falls below 75 F(22
c) its indicative of death and below 70(21 c) it’s a sure sign of death
The rate of body cooling:
1C/hr in summer
1.5C/hr in winter

 BT usually remain stable for an hour then…

 Two of the formulas that are the easiest to use are;
 Time since death = 37°C – Rectal temperature (C) + 3
 Time since death = (98.6 F – Rectal temperature (F))/ 1.5
 Such determinations make two assumptions that may
not be true:

 the body temperature at death was normal

 body cooling follows a progressive repetitive pattern

 variations in rectal temperature :

Low : cholera / prolonged exposure to cold/ CHF / sever
collapse

High: CO poisoning / coronary thrombosis / ruptured aortic

aneurysm / heat stroke / pontine hemorrhage / infections/
asphyxia / exercise before death
Henssge’s Nomogram
the most useful method of
estimating the time of
death
Henssge’s Nomogram relies
on three measurements –
body temperature, ambient
temperature and body
weight
 Factors affecting algor mortis
1. Temperature of the body at the moment of death:
2. Temperature difference between the body and the surroundings: important in
the rate of cooling.
3. Clothing and coverings: conduction and convection are markedly reduced by
clothing.
4. Body-built (the size factor): surface area , BMI( large BMI =slower cooling)
5. Air current and humidity: Major skin cooling occurs by conduction, Better air
movement over the body surface brings cooler air in contact with the body and
encourages the heat loss.(higher humidity = rapid cooling rate )( rapid air velocity:
rapid cooling rate)
6. Postmortem caloricity: It is a condition where there is rise of body temperature
after death instead of cooling of the body. Although the process of postmortem
glycogenolysis, which occurs in all dead bodies soon after death, can produce up
to about 140 calories that can raise the body temperature by about 2° C.
7. Edema: slower cooling
8. Posture
9. Fulminating infection : (i.e : septicemia) the body temperature may continue
torise for some hours after death.
Hypostasis / Livor Mortis
• The word ‘hypostasis’ itself means ‘passive congestion of an
organ or part’. With the cessation of circulation at the time of
death, the blood obeying the law of gravity into the toneless
capillaries and venules in the dependent parts of the body and
settles into the lowest available parts of the body. This passive
pooling of blood into the dependent areas of the body,
imparting purplish or reddish-purple discoloration to those
areas, is known as postmortem hypostasis.

• post-mortem 'dependent oedema’ : Gravity then acts upon

the now stagnant blood and pulls it down to the lowest
accessible areas. The red cells are most affected, passing
through the lax network, but plasma also drifts downwards to
a lesser extent, which contributes to the skin blistering that is
part of early post-mortem sign.
Hypostasis / Livor Mortis
• Within pressure areas such as the shoulder blades,
buttock & calves →discoloration will be pale.
• starts immediately after death.
• apparent after 2 hrs and fixed after 8 hrs.
• may not appear at all especially in infants, old and
anemic or in those who have died from severe blood
loss.
The distribution of hypostasis
The pattern of hypostasis depends on the posture of the body
after death

Supine position
 Vertical/
hanging
position

• hypostasis will be
most marked in the
feet, legs and to lesser
extent in the hands
and distal part of the
arms
  chest, upper chest, and upper limbs.
 If the body is constantly changing postion due to
Drowning forceful currents/waves of water, hypostasis my not
develop.
Face-down

• as in epilepsy, drunken victims

• whitening around nose & lips.
 Other sites “internal lividity”
• under usual circumstances when the body is lying upon its back,
hypostasis is frequently observed in the posterior cerebral lobes,
lower posterior surfaces of lungs, posterior surfaces of liver, kidneys,
spleen, posterior part of stomach and the dependent loops of
jejunum and ileum.
Heart: mistaken for MI
Lungs: mistaken for pneumonia
Intestine: mistaken for hemorrhagic infarction

• As the blood accumulates in the dependent areas, the pressure of the

settling blood can rupture small vessels, with development of petechiae
and purpura .
• The most common place is the back of the shoulders and neck, though
they may appear on the front of the chest, even on a body lying on its
back. They are more common in cyanotic, congestive types of death and
become more pronounced as the post-mortem interval lengthens. Their
importance is in not being mistaken for the so-called signs of 'asphyxia'
Color of Hypostasis
 The color of hypostasis is variable and depends on the state of
oxygenation at the time of death.
 It may be masked by dark skin colours, by jaundice or by some
dermatological conditions.
 -colour changes that may act as indicators of possible causes of death:

Dark blue-pink cyanide poisoning

Brown methahemoglobinemia

Cherry pink CO poisoning (carboxyhemoglobin) /cold temperatures

/cyanide

anemia, hemorrhage (or normal in extremes

Pale
of age).
 Timing and Permanence of
Hypostasis
• Hypostasis Starts from1/2 hr to many hrs after death.
• The time is so variable that it has no significant role in determining the
time of death
In summer hypostasis remain 24-36 hr.
In winter it remains about 12 hrs more (48hr).

Once hypostasis is established, there is controversy about its ability to

undergo subsequent gravitational shift. If the body is moved into a
different posture, the primary hypostasis may either:
I. -remain fixed
II. -move completely
III. -Partly fixed and partly
Medico-legal Importance of Hypostasis

 Sure sign of death

 Cause of death

 Characteristic distribution may suggest manner of death as in hanging

 Indicate if the body was moved or not after death

Hypostasis vs bruise
Rigor Mortis
• Alternatively called as cadaveric rigidity, it is the stiffening of the
muscles after death. Following death, muscles of the pass
through three phases:
• primary flaccidity : which occurs immediately after somatic
death, Here the muscles are able to respond to electrical or
chemical stimuli.
• The second stage : is the development of rigidity known as rigor
mortis during which there is no longer any response to the
electrical or chemical stimuli .
• the third stage: is the secondary flaccidity or stage of resolution
when the rigor passes away that occur with the onset of
putrefaction.
 Rigor Mortis
• Temperature-dependent, physicochemical change that occurs within muscle cells as a result of
lack of oxygen causing the limbs of the corpse to become stiff and difficult to move or
manipulate.

• Death cessation of respiration depletion of oxygen  less ATP secondary anoxic process 
lactic acid cell cytoplasm becomes increasingly acidic with low ATP and high acidity, the actin
and myosin fibers bind together and form a gel  but Unlike normal muscle contractions, the
body is unable to complete the cycle and release the coupling between the myosin and actin,
creating a perpetual state of muscular contraction, until the breakdown of muscle tissue by
digestive enzymes during decomposition.

• RM initiated when the ATP concentration falls to 85% of normal

• It starts to develop about 2-3 hrs after death

• Rigor develops uniformly throughout the body but it is first detected in smaller muscle groups
such as those around the eyes, mouth, jaw & fingers.
• Peaks in the next 6-12 hrs
• It concludes around 36-48 hrs after death
• It resolves in the same order in which it develops “secondary flaccidity”
 Factors affecting timing of RM
o Environmental temperature:
o Cold and wet  onset slow, duration longer “remain 36-48 hr”
o Hot and dry  onset fast, duration shorter “remain 24-36 hr

o Muscular activity before death:

o muscles healthy, at rest before death  slow onset, duration longer
o muscles exhausted/ fatigued  onset rapid, in those limbs being used (eg in someone running
at time of death, lower limbs develop RM faster than upper limbs), duration shorter.
o increase activity (convulsions, electrocution, lightning)  rapid onset & short duration
o Age:
o extremes of age  rapid onset
o Health

Estimated time of death

Body T Muscles’ tone ETD
warm flaccid < 3hrs
warm stiff 3-8 hrs
cold stiff 8-36 hrs
cold flaccid >36 hrs
 Rigor Mortis (cont’d)
RM in Iris:
 May affect the eyes unequal, making the pupils unequal

RM in the Heart:

 Contracted, stiff LV may be mistaken for LV hypertrophy

RM in Dartos muscle of scrotum:

 Rigor in Dartos  constricts testes and epididymis
expulsion of semen

RM in Erector Pilli muscles attached to hair follicles:

 Goose bumps, hair stands up
 How to test for Rigor

 It is best to test for rigor across a joint using very gentle pressure
from one or two fingers only; the aim is to detect the presence and
extent of the stiffness, not to ‘break’ it
 If rigor is broken by applying too much force, those muscle groups
cannot reliably be tested again
 Cadaveric Spasm( instantaneous rigor )
 Also known as instantaneous rigor or rigidity, or cataleptic rigidity.

 Rare form of muscular stiffening that occurs at the moment of death, persists into
the period of rigor mortis and can be mistaken for rigor mortis , and the primary
flaccidity doesn’t occur on it .

 The cause is unknown, but usually associated with violent deaths happening with
intense emotion

 May affect all muscles in the body, but typically only groups, such as
 the forearms, or hands

 Maybe seen in cases of drowning victims when grass, weeds, roots or other
materials are clutched, and provides proof of life at the time of entry into the
water.

 Often demonstrates the last activity one did prior to death and is therefore
significant in forensic investigations, e.g. clinging on a knife tightly
 Cadaveric Spasm

Cadaveric spasm in a drowning victim: This victim

grasped at some ivy as he fell into water.

Victim of suicide: The cadaveric spasm

has maintained the position of his arms
after the shotgun has been removed
Rigor Mortis vs. Cadaveric Spasm
 Conditions Mistaken as RM
• Heat stiffness:
• Exposure of a body to intense heat (more than 65 C) (burning, high
voltage electrocution, etc) coagulation of muscular proteins 
muscular shortening and contraction

• Cold stiffness:
• Exposure of the body to extreme cold (<-5⁰C) solidification of
subcutaneous fat and muscles, freezing of synovial fluid in joints
Medicolegal Importance of
RM
 May help in time estimation
 May help in finding the cause of death
 May help to know the position
 Sure sign of death
 Decomposition
Decomposition is a mixed process ranging from autolysis of individual
cells by internal chemical breakdown to tissue autolysis from
'liberated enzymes, and external processes introduced by bacteria
and fungi from the intestine and outer environment.
Animal predators, from maggots to mammals, can be included in the
range of destruction. Decomposition may differ from body to body,
from environment to environment, and even from one part of the
same corpse to another. Sometimes one portion of a corpse may
show leathery, mummified preservation whilst the rest is in a state
of liquefying putrefacrion.
Putrefaction
is by far the commonest route of decomposition taken by any body after death
and this route will be followed unless some unusual conditions apply.
 Putrefaction
• the normal final sign of death.
• starts immediately after death at the cellular level
• becomes visible in 48-72 hrs.
• Two phenomena for putrefaction:
• Autolysis: occurs by digestive enzymes released from the cells after
death. “Chemical process” … Since it is a chemical process, it is accelerated by heat, slowed by
cold, and stopped by freezing or the inactivation of enzymes by heat. Organs rich in enzymes will
undergo autolysis faster than organs with lesser amounts of enzyme. Thus, the pancreas autolyzes
before the heart.”

• Bacterial action: Bacterial action and fermentation (liquefaction of the

soft tissues over a period of time .. most of them come from the bowel
and Clostridium predominates (same bacteria that causes gas gangrene)
• The 1st visible sign of putrefaction is green or greenish red discoloration of the
skin of the anterior abdominal wall.. normally starts in the right iliac fossa..
usually in the first 24–36 h…. generalized bloating (60–72 h)
 The blood vessels provide an excellent channel for bacterial
spread throughout the body decomposition of Hg which, when
present in the superficial vessels, results in linear branching
patterns of brown discoloration of the skin that is called
‘marbling’.

 as the superficial layers of the skin lose cohesions, blisters full

of red or brown fluid form in many areas. When the blisters
burst, the skin sloughs off.

 Considerable gas formation is common and the body begins to

swell, with bloating of the face, abdomen, breasts and genitals.
Marbling
The increased internal pressure causes the eyes and
tongue to protrude and forces bloody fluid up from
the lungs and it will often leak out of the mouth and
nose as ‘purge’.
in general terms, within a week or so the body
cavities will burst and the tissues will liquefy and
drain away into the underlying ground
 Brain &epithelial tissues are the 1st to be affected by putrefaction
 Heart, uterus & prostate may survive for longer periods.

As decomposition proceeds, the weight of the organs

decreases.
  Influences on Putrefaction
• A high environmental humidity will enhance putrefaction.
• Bodily habits of the decedent; obese individuals putrefy more rapidly than those who are lean.
• Putrefaction will be delayed in deaths from exsanguination (bleeding to death) because blood
provides a channel for the spread of putrefactive organisms within the body.

• Conversely, putrefaction is more rapid in persons dying with widespread infection “sepsis -A
septic body dead 6–12 h may have the appearance of one dead 5–6 days even if refrigerated”,
congestive cardiac failure or retention of sodium and salts.

• Age: more rapid in children than in adults, but the onset is relatively slow in unfed new-born
infants because of the lack of commensal bacteria.

• Heavy clothing and other coverings, by retaining body heat, will speed up putrefaction.
• Rapid putrefactive changes may been seen in corpses left in a room which is well heated, or in a
bed with an electric blanket.

• Injuries to the body surface promote putrefaction by providing portals of entry for bacteria and
the associated blood provides an excellent medium for bacterial growth.
 Mummification
 A body lying in dry and warm conditions, either climatic or in the microenvironment, may
desiccate instead of putrefying
 drying & shriveling of the tissues
 brown in color
 Also seen in newborn infants (sterile) whose bodies are placed in cool dry environments
 No growth of micro organisms.

 The time required for complete

mummification can’t be precisely stated
but it takes several weeks to months,
depending on the size of the body (more
likely in the thin individual) and
atmospheric conditions.
 Once the changes are complete, the body
will remain in that condition indefinitely.
 Mummification is partial
Medicolegal Importance of Mummification

 Cause of Death
 Can detect abnormal pathology inside deep organs
 Adipocere
 chemical change in the body fat, which is hydrolysed to a waxy
compound not unlike soap
 Moisture is necessary.
 The optimum conditions for the formation of adipocere:
 wet, warm environment (sometimes original body water being sufficient
for adipocere)
 bacterial activity (C. perfiringes).
 It occurs in:
 subcutaneous fat of the cheeks ,breast, buttocks
 may occur in internal organs such as liver , kidney & heart.
 It needs months to occur, and occurs partially
• 3 stages

• In early stages: adipocere is a pale, rancid,

greasy semi-fluid material with a most
unpleasant smell.
• Later: becomes more brittle and whiter
• when fully formed, adipocere is a grey,
firm, waxy compound which maintains the
shape of the body

Adipocere formation in an
infant buried for 3 years. The
body fat has been converted
into brittle waxy material,
which forms
a shell around the skeleton.
  Medicolegal Importance of
Adipocrere
• Preserve the body which can permit identification after death.

• It may give conclusions about the cause of death.

• It indicates that the time interval since death was at least weeks to
several months.
 Immersion and burial
• Immersion in water or burial will slow the process of decomposition

• Body in air will decompose twice as fast as a body in water and four
times as fast as a body under the ground

• The first change that affects the body in water is the loss of
epidermis. Gaseous decomposition progresses and the bloated body
is often lifted to the surface by these gases, most commonly at about
1 week but this time is extremely variable
 Skeletelization
 The environment is more important than the time in this process.
 12-18 months: soft tissues will be absent
 Tendons, ligaments, hair and nails will be identifiable for some time after
that
 after 3 yrs: the bones will be bare and disarticulated
 In temperate zones the bones will remain solid & heavy with the
preservation of bone marrow in long bones for a number of years,
that can sometimes be suitable for specialist DNA analysis

 After 40-50 years:

 Bone surface becomes dry & brittle
 marrow cavity will be empty.
 Estimating the Time of Death
• Unfortunately, all methods now in use to determine the time of
death are to a degree unreliable and inaccurate. They usually give
vague or answers

• The longer the postmortem interval, the less precise the estimate
of the interval
 Estimating the Time of Death
 Core body temperature:
 the best and the most commonly used
 Rigor mortis
 Hypostasis:
 complete after 6 hrs.
 Chemical changes in vitreous
 as time since death increases, so does the K conc.
 Eye pressure:
 eye balls become softer, and less fluid pressure in the first 3 hrs
 Gastric emptying:
 depend on type of meal and emotional status.
 The entomology of dead:
 Studying insects & their maggots which infest the dead body for
estimating the probable time of death.
 Different types of insects infest the dead body at different stages after
death occurs.
 Scene markers
 Though unscientific, is often more accurate than determinations made
by scientific means
 Scene Markers
• Uncollected mail or newspapers.
• Whether the lights are on or off.
• How the individual is dressed.
• Any food that is out or dirty dishes in the sink.
• Sales receipts or dated slips of paper in the deceased’s pockets.
• When the neighbors last saw the individual or observed a change is
his habits.
 References
 Jaroslava Dušková

 Inst. Pathol. ,1st Med. Faculty, Charles Univ., Prague

 http://www1.lf1.cuni.cz/~jdusk/

 Forensic Pathology/Second Edition / Vincent J. DiMaio , Dominick DiMaio

 Simpson’s Forensic Medicine

 Text book of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

 Knight’s Forensic medicine

Thank you