1 markDetectives investigating suspicious deaths will routinely try to establish the time of death (TOD), in order to construct a timeline of events before and after the victim's death.
Forensic scientists refer to a dead body as a cadaver.
Which factors from the list below would forensic scientists need to take into account when assessing the victim's TOD?
- The cadaver's core temperature at the time of analysis
- The victim's gender
- Insect life on the cadaver
- Body hair coverage of the cadaver
- The victim's body mass
- The cadaver's degree of muscle contraction
- The position / posture of the cadaver when discovered (seated, lying down, lying on back or front etc.)
- The ambient temperature
| ☐ | A | 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 | |
| ☐ | B | All except 7 | |
| ☐ | C | 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 | |
| ☐ | D | 2, 4, 6 and 8 |
3 marksA forensic scientist was called to the scene of a suspicious death. At 4 pm, the scientist measured the body temperature by inserting a rectal thermometer into the victim's rectum.
The cadaver's body temperature was measured to be 30.5°C.
The ambient temperature was 8°C. At this temperature, the cadaver's expected loss of heat would be 2°C in the first hour, followed by a rate of 1.5°C per hour thereafter.
Determine an estimate of the victim's likely time of death. You may assume that the deceased person's core temperature was 37°C at the time of death.
4 marksThe image below shows part of Lindow Man, the preserved remains of a man found in Cheshire, UK in 1984.
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It is thought that Lindow Man was a man in his 20s who lived at around the date of 100 A.D. He was found in a peat bog during commercial cutting of peat for sale as a fuel and as a compost ingredient.
(2)
For each condition, you stated in part (i), give a brief explanation of how that condition assists in preserving a body.
(2)
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