Question

The body of a middle-aged man is discovered in the kitchen of a dwelling house. He is identified by neighbors as the occupant of the house and was last seen alive 7 days prior to the discovery of the body by his girlfriend. Based on the principles of Newton’s Laws of Cooling, a forensic pathologist, who examined the body at the scene, informed the investigating police officers that the body had been dead for twelve hours and twenty minutes.

a) Can you identify a flaw in the presentation of this answer? Explain your answer.

b) Knowledge of what factors might lead the forensic pathologist to modify her stated postmortem interval and in what way (i.e. increase or decrease) would the stated postmortem interval be modified? Briefly explain your answers. You should list and explain as many factors as you can think of, we would expect at least 5 factors to be discussed.

I saw that this question was previously asked but they did not go over part B as much and I would like more information about that.

Thank you

Answer 1

Ans 1) After the death or immediately after the death, for some time that body will continue with radiate out heat in the room and gradually the temperature of the body will decrease becoming cold. The body was found in the kitchen and as per the forensic research, after examination of the body, the body was assumed to be dead for twelve hours and 20 minutes. One of the flaws in representation of the answer is the body condition at the time of the death and the temperature of the body. There are generally four factors that are majorly involved in Newton’s Model of Cooling which includes the temperature of the body at time of death, temperature of surrounding area, weight of the body and lastly the body condition. The presentation must be made considering the temperature of body during time of death and the amount of heat released.

Ans b) The knowledge of the body conditions and the reason for death is one of the factors which can considerably changed and modify the stated post mortem interval. It is not easy to find out the exact time of death or the duration between time of death and the time when body was found. With use of sufficient information, estimation can be made on time of death. There are couples of factors that must be considered by the forensic expert upon post mortem that determines the time.

i)                    Body observation – This means it is very important to determine or atleast try to determine the body temperature at time of death. This helps in bridging the gap and finding out the time of the death.

ii)                   Release of heat to environment – By determining the environment and heat outside, one can determine the temperature of the surrounding. A sound understanding of outside temperature is important.

iii)                 Scene of death – There are a number of evidences that need to be found around the scene of death which helps in ascertaining the time and reason for death.

iv)                 Conduction of heat – This is an important which helps in identifying and finding out the heat conduction. The heat released in the environment from the body is a big factor in identifying the estimated time of death and is a big help in finding probable time of death.

v)                  Conditions of death – A lot of things also depend on the body condition. During the time of death, the body conditions is one of the determinant to finding the estimated time of death.