Death: Meaning, Manner,

Mechanism, Cause, Time

 Back in the day …
17th century: anyone in a coma or with a
weak heartbeat was presumed dead &
buried
fear of being buried alive = cowbell in
coffin (“saved by the bell”?)
 Manner of Death (MOD)
 natural death (most common)
- interruption/failure of body
functions from age or disease
 accidental death
- unplanned events (car accident,
falling from a ladder)
 suicidal death
- person purposefully kills oneself
 homicidal death
- death of one person caused by
another
 undetermined
What’s the MOD?
 A man with a heart
condition is attacked and
dies from a heart attack
during the assault. Is the
MOD accidental or
homicide?
 An elderly woman dies
after being kept from
receiving proper health
care by her son. Is the
manner of death natural or
homicide?
 Cause of Death (COD)
the reason someone dies is the COD
disease, physical injury, stroke, heart
attack, bludgeoning, shooting, burning,
drowning, strangulation,
hanging, suffocation, etc.
“proximate cause of death”
is an underlying cause (as
opposed to the final cause)
 Mechanism of Death
the specific body change that brought
about cessation of life
ex: if COD is shooting,
mechanism may be blood
loss (exsanguination) or
loss of brain function
ex: if COD is a heart
attack, mechanism may
be heart stopping to
beat or pulmonary arrest
 Time of Death (TOD)
many factors are used to estimate TOD
 Livor Mortis

literally means DEATH COLOR

RBC break down & spill contents
hemoglobin turns
purple when it spills
purplish color visible
wherever blood pools
(lividity)
 Livor
Mortis

 2 hrs after death: lividity begins

 8 hrs after death: discoloration permanent
 between 2 and 8 hrs after death: if you press
skin, discoloration disappears
 ambient temp affects time for lividity to set in
(hotter = faster)
 can reveal approximate TOD and position of
corpse and if they’ve been moved (dual lividity)
 Rigor Mortis
literally means DEATH STIFFNESS
temporary
 Rigor Mortis
no visible rigor:
<2 hrs or >48 hrs
very rigid (full rigor):
~12 hrs
rigor only in face & neck:
just over 2 hrs
some rigor in body, none in face:
more than 15 hrs ago
 Rigor Mortis
stiffness occurs
because skeletal
muscles can’t
relax (they are
contracted) due
to presence of
extra calcium
muscles control
bone movement
so joints appear
to be rigid too
Rigor Mortis
 Rigor Mortis
factors that affect rigor mortis include:
- ambient temp (warmer = faster due to
faster chem reactions)
- body weight (thinner = faster due to less
stored O2)
- type of clothing (clothed = faster)
- illness (sick/fever = faster)
- level of activity before death (aerobic
exercise = faster)
- sun exposure (sunlight = faster)
Rigor Mortis
 Algor Mortis
literally means DEATH HEAT
temperature loss
generally,
- lose 1.4oF per hour
for the first 12 hrs
- lose 0.7oF per hour
after 12 hrs until
body reaches temp
of surroundings
Stomach & Intestinal Contents
 also used to help
determine TOD
 4-6 hrs for stomach
to empty contents
into small intestine
 another 12 hrs for
food to leave small
intestine
 24 hrs for all
undigested food to
be released
 Stages of Decomposition
 within 2 days
- cell autolysis
- green/purplish staining
- marbled skin
- discolored face
 after 4 days
- skin blisters
- abdomen swells with CO2
 within 6 to 10 days
- corpse bloats with CO2
- chest/abdominal cavities burst and collapse
- fluids leak from body openings
- eyeballs/other tissues liquefy
- skin sloughs off
 Forensic Entomology
Flies arrive within 10 minutes of death
Type of insects follows a succession as the
body undergoes changes from-
The fresh stage, to the bloating stage to
the dry or skeletal stage when the skin
falls of leaving teeth and bone
Four development stages of flies:
egg
Hatch into a larva or maggot
adult fly emerges from pupa
 Adults mate, and the females will lay
more eggs onto corpses.
Lays eggs in natural body openings