Q and A: Can My ME Distinguish Death From Asphyxia From Death Due to Head Trauma?

Q: Here’s my book situation: A man puts a plastic bag over his head to kill himself. His wife wakes up next to him (after he nearly strangled her to death and she discovers he’s killed their son) and in her horror and rage cracks him over the head with a blunt object.

Here’s my question: Can the police/coroner/forensics determine which was the cause of death–suffocation or blunt force trauma? If so, what would the signs be pointing to asphyxiation?  Also, if it matters, this is set in 1969.

Judy Merrill Larsen, author of All the Numbers

http://www.judymerrilllarsen.com

A: If the victim died first from the asphyxia, the ME would have no problem since the blow to the head would cause no bruising or bleeding. At death the heart stops and blood flow ceases and a corpse will not bleed or bruise easily. So the ME would see a mark where the victim was struck but no bleeding or bruising and know that the blow was delivered post-mortem.

If he was still alive when struck, things become a little more difficult for the ME but he should still be able to tell. Bruising and bleeding at the site of the blunt trauma would show that the victim was alive when struck but if there is no significant brain injury found at autopsy he would know that the force of the blow did not cause death and the asphyxia must have. If there is a brain injury such as cerebral contusion (brain bruise) or bleeding into or around the brain, he might have difficulty determining the actual cause of death. Of course any evidence of blunt trauma would point to homicide and not suicide since someone using a plastic bag for suicide would not likely also strike themselves in the head.

But I see a bigger problem with your scenario. If she was unconscious from being strangled, she would wake up within 10 seconds to a minute or so after the pressure was released unless she had significant brain injury from lack of oxygen. If she were simply strangled into unconsciousness, which is due to blocking blood flow thru the carotid arteries to the brain and not blocking breathing, as soon as the pressure was released and blood flow reestablished, she would wake up very quickly. Much sooner than he could put a bag on his head and die from asphyxia. For her to be out that long would require some degree of brain injury and I don’t think that’s what you want. Of course, if he drugged her first and then strangled her to the point he thought she was dead, but she in fact wasn’t, then she would awaken when the drug effect wore off. Here he could be dead for hours before she awakened.

 

 

Q and A: Can My Serial Killer Make His Victims Float Face-up?

Q: My serial killer has predilections that make him want his (female) victims to float face up when they are found. He strangles them and then places them in the water, so they don’t actually die of drowning. Would plugging the throat or taping the mouth and nose shut (so air stays in the lungs) be a good way for him to achieve this effect? What else might work?

S.K. Davenport, Pittsburgh, PA

A: Plugging the throat or taping the mouth and nose would make little difference since there is not enough air in the lungs to cause a body to float. Virtually all bodies sink when first tossed into water. This is not absolutely universal as sometimes clothing can gather air and keep the victim afloat but for the most part they sink. They do not float again until the decay process has progressed to the point that gases have collected within the abdomen and the tissues and the body becomes buoyant. Most bodies float facedown for a very simple reason–the arms and the legs tend to fall in that direction rather than backwards so their weight keeps the body face down.

In order to make the body float he would have to do something to increase the rate of decay and since this is predominantly temperature dependent it would be best if the body was placed in warm water such as a heated pool, a Jacuzzi, or a swamp in Louisiana. Alternatively–and this is over-the-top sinister–he could inject air into the victims abdomen and chest and even the tissues of the legs and arms. If he injected enough the body would float immediately. In order to keep the body on its back, he would have to apply weights of some type that would weigh down the backside of the corpse. Maybe some large fishhooks placed deeply into the flesh and muscles with weights attached. Just a diabolical thought.

 

Q and A: If a Corpse Has Undergone Adipocere Formation, Can My ME Accurately Determine the Time of Death?

Q: In your blog you have talked about the formation of adipocere and explained the process. But what about how to estimate the time of death after a corpse has gone through the process of saponification? In my current project I have a body covered in adipocere. The victim is found 15 years after she was killed. Will it be possible for the detectives to determine exactly when she had been killed?

EE Giorgi, Los Alamos, NM

A: The short answer is no they would not be able to. At least not from the adipocere alone.

Adipocere formation is not common but it does indeed occur. This process is not one where the body is covered with adipocere but rather the body turns into this soap-like material. This can happen in a few weeks under the proper circumstances, which is usually a body buried in very acidic or alkaline environments. But it can happen under many circumstances.

 

Once it is formed the body remains fairly stable and can easily remain intact for 15 years or longer. But there is nothing about the adipocere itself that would give a timeline for when death occurred. Based only on that it could’ve been a few months ago or a few decades ago and the medical examiner has no tools for really distinguishing one from the other.

He would instead rely on other information such as when the person went missing. Let’s say the victim was 20 years old at the time of death. That would mean she would be 35 at the time the body was found. When the medical examiner, and perhaps a forensic anthropologist, examined the body they would know that the corpse was more consistent with someone in the 15 to 20 year old range than someone in the 35 to 40 year range and therefore could say that she had been dead for 15 years or so.

There might also be scene markers such as the clothing she was wearing or items found in her pockets, purse, or anything else found at the burial site. Some of these might suggest that she died shortly after she disappeared. Maybe a friend had just given her a check or a letter to mail and it had somehow survived in her purse. Most people deposit checks and post letters fairly soon rather than keeping them in their possession for weeks or months. So if these were found it would suggest she had died fairly soon after receiving them.

Maybe she was known to be wearing a certain shirt or jacket or other item of clothing at the time she disappeared and the same clothing was found on or around the corpse. This would be strong evidence that she died around the time she had disappeared simply because had she lived for a period of time after disappearance she would likely have changed clothes.

The ME could see all of this and make his best estimate that she probably died around the time she disappeared.

 

Sniffing Out the Time of Death

You’ve seen a paramecium before. It was that little football-shaped (actually a prolate spheroid) critter that you viewed under the microscope in high school biology class. These tiny creatures are covered with microscopic hair-like oars known as cilia, which they use to move around in water.

 

Similar cilia line your nose and airways. They help you remove inhaled dust and dirt from your lungs and nose. Apparently they continue moving, at a progressively slower rate, for up to 20 hours after death. Biagio Solaria and his colleagues at the University of Bari in Italy have studied this phenomenon and found that the this decline in mobility is predictable and observing the beating rate of cadaver cilia might provide an accurate time of death in the first 24 hours after death. They will report their results in the upcoming International Symposium on Advances in Legal Medicine in Frankfurt, Germany.

Since all methods for determining the time of death are fraught with inaccuracies, a new method is always welcome. Hopefully, this one will pan out.

 

How Old Is That Blood Stain?

Your detective is called because a body has been found dumped in a remote area. The victim is identified as a man who has been missing for four months and the medical examiner determines that his death likely occurred around the time of his disappearance. He had been in a dispute with a business partner over ownership of their company. The business partner has always maintained that the victim sold out and moved away to parts unknown. A fishy story but your detective has little to go on.

The search warrant is executed on the business partner’s home and indeed an old bloodstain is found on the garage floor. Blood typing and DNA analysis proves that it is the victim’s blood but the partner says it was from two years earlier when the victim helped him move some furniture and injured his hand, bleeding on the floor. He said they both cleaned it up at that time but he must’ve missed a spot.

The dilemma facing your detective is how to determine when the blood was shed? Four months ago or two years ago? DNA will only tell him that the blood belongs to the victim but it will not tell him when it was deposited.

Enter Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (Messenger RNA or mRNA).

Our DNA is our instruction manual. It tells each cell of the body what to do and how to do it. But DNA is inert. It does nothing except hold information. The real work is done by the enzymes in the cytoplasm of the cell. They create new proteins, other enzymes, various chemicals, and all the other things required for life.

But how does the DNA pass its instructions out to the cytoplasm where the needed worker enzymes are created and ply their trade? By employing mRNA, a temporary molecule, that is synthesized within the nucleus according to the instructions coded within the DNA. The mRNA then migrates into the cell’s cytoplasm where it directs the creation of the enzymes needed to do the job. In effect it carries the DNA’s instruction to the workplace. That’s why it’s called messenger RNA. This is of course a simplified explanation of a very complex process.

So what does this have to do with the age of a blood stain? Anne-Marie Simard of the University of Montréal is studying the degradation of four messenger RNA molecules found within blood, saliva, and semen. Her preliminary findings suggest that these molecules degrade at a measurable rate and if this is proven to be true such studies might be useful for determining the age of crime scene samples.

This could be a very useful tool for homicide investigators, particularly in cases such as the fictional one I outlined above. Determining the blood stain was four months old rather than two years would require an explanation from the business partner.

 

Joint Fluid and the Time of Death

One of the most important things that the medical examiner must determine in any death investigation is the time of death. This can spotlight or exonerate a suspect and support or refute a witness statement. An alibi can be upheld or shattered.

But it’s not that easy. The medical examiner uses things such as body temperature, degree of rigor mortis, lividity, stomach contents, degree of decomposition, insect activity, and a few other parameters to make a best guess as to time of death. Another determination that often proves helpful is the potassium level within the vitreous humor, the liquid inside the eyeball. The potassium level tends to increase in a linear fashion and at a known rate after death and this can help the medical examiner with his estimation.

Now it seems that assessing the level of potassium in the victim’s synovial fluid might be just as accurate. Synovial fluid is the liquid that lubricates our joints. This could prove useful in cases where the victim has been decapitated or the head is so damaged that the eyes have been destroyed.

 

Question and Answer: What Happens When Someone Is Hanged?

Q: I’ve got a couple of questions about hanging. I have a 140-pound man of slight build who has been hanged. His neck is not broken and thus he is strangling. His hands are bound. How long might he survive before death? Would he lose consciousness well before or shortly before death? If he is taken down before death, we would certainly see abrasion of the neck. What else would we see? If unconscious, would he revive quickly? Could his injuries be life-threatening? (I’m thinking of throat swelling here) I am looking at pre-modern society here. No ER or modern medicine.

A: In hangings, death results from asphyxia, which is the reduction of oxygen to the brain. Asphyxia in hangings results from the compression of the airways and the carotid arteries (the arteries on either side of the neck that carry blood to the brain) by a noose or other ligature that is pulled tight by the body weight. Thus, the victim must be completely or partially suspended.

 

Though the airway can be compressed and breathing can be interrupted, the real cause of loss of consciousness and death in most hangings is compression of the carotid arteries, which blocks blood flow to the brain. Except for judicial (legally directed) hangings, fractures of the cervical vertebrae (spinal bones of the neck) are uncommon. The reason is that these fractures require that the body drop a sufficient distance to break them. How far is this? The answer depends upon several factors. Individuals who are obese, have small neck musculature, or who have arthritis of the cervical spine may suffer neck fractures quite easily. Just the opposite is true for muscular, thick-necked persons. In judicial hangings, these factors are considered in gauging the distance of the drop. Too little drop and the condemned person is strangled to death, too far and he could be decapitated.

The neck markings seen after hanging depends mainly on the nature of the noose used. Soft nooses such as sheets may leave little of no markings. Bruises and abrasions are not common with softer devices. In fact, if the victim uses a soft noose and if the body is discovered fairly quickly and cut down, the ME may not be able to find any marks at all. A rope or cord may leave a very deep, distinct furrow in the victim’s neck. The longer the body hangs, the deeper the furrow. Abrasions and contusions are more common with these types of nooses. Occasionally the furrow and any associated bruising may reveal the braid pattern of a rope or the link configuration of a chain.

In hangings, the furrow and the bruising will follow a typical course. The pattern is that of an inverted V. The furrow tends to be diagonal across the neck with its high end where the knot is located. The knot is usually to one side. This means that if the knot is to the victim’s left side, the furrow will be lower on the neck and much deeper on the right side and will angle upward toward the left ear. Near the knot, the furrow may shallow and disappear. This pattern is due to the body hanging by the “bottom” of the nose.

Okay, enough about hangings, let’s get to your situation. Since the asphyxia is due to compression of the arteries and not the prevention of breathing, loss of consciousness occurs very quickly, usually in a minute or less and maybe as short as 20 seconds. The brain needs a continuous supply of blood and when this is interrupted, consciousness is lost quickly. Death may take from 1 to 5 or 6 minutes.

If your victim is found within 2 to 3 minutes, he would be unconscious but could wake up fairly quickly—a couple of minutes. Or not. Some people die in a minute while others can take many minutes. Go with a couple of minutes but not longer and you’ll be OK. He would probably have the typical V-shaped bruises on his neck and a furrow that would resolve over a half hour or so.

He could return completely to normal or be left with brain damage or even remain in a coma for hours, days, weeks, months, years, or forever. It all depends upon how long the brain was deprived of blood and luck. This varies from person to person.

 

Q and A: Will a Decaying Corpse Actually Produce Alcohol?

Q: Is possible or likely for blood alcohol levels to increase or decrease in a decomposing body, and if so during what stages of decomposition?

A: Alcohol is usually consumed in the decay process but may actually be produced and this might cloud any toxicological examinations on the corpse. Make it look as if the victim consumed more alcohol than he actually did.

I must point out that alcohol is not commonly produced but it does happen. The alcohol is a byproduct of the action of some types of bacteria that are involved in the decay process. This means that alcohol can only appear during active decay. What is that time period? A little about putrefaction.

The decomposition of the human body involves two distinct processes: autolysis and putrefaction.

Autolysis is basically a process of self-digestion. After death, the enzymes within the body’s cells begin the chemical breakdown of the cells and tissues. As with most chemical reactions the process is hastened by heat and slowed by cold.

Putrefaction is the bacteria-mediated destruction of the body’s tissues. It is this decay that might cause alcohol formation. Not always, but sometimes. The responsible bacteria mostly come for the intestinal tract of the deceased, though environmental bacteria and yeasts contribute in many situations. Bacteria thrive in warm, moist environments and become sluggish in colder climes. Freezing will stop their activities completely. A frozen body will not undergo putrefaction until it thaws.

Under normal temperate conditions, putrefaction follows a known sequence. During the first 24 hours, the abdomen takes on a greenish discoloration, which spreads to the neck, shoulders, and head. Bloating follows. This is due to the accumulation of gas, a byproduct of the action of bacteria, within the body’s cavities and skin. This swelling begins in the face where the features swell and the eyes and tongue protrude. The skin will then begin to “marble.” This is a web-like pattern of the blood vessels over the face, chest, abdomen, and extremities. This pattern is green-black in color and is due to the reaction of the blood’s hemoglobin with hydrogen sulfide. As gasses continue to accumulate, the abdomen swells and the skin begins to blister. Soon, skin and hair slippage occur and the fingernails begin to slough off. By this stage, the body has taken on a greenish-black color. The fluids of decomposition (purge fluid) will begin to drain from nose and mouth. This may look like bleeding from trauma, but is due to extensive breakdown of the body’s tissues.

The rate at which this process occurs is almost never “normal” because conditions surrounding the body are almost never “normal.” Both environmental and internal body conditions alter this process greatly. Obesity, excess clothing, a hot and humid environment, and the presence of sepsis (infection in the bloodstream) might speed this process so that 24 hours appear like 5 or 6 days have passed. Sepsis is particularly destructive to the body. Not only would an associated fever from the infection cause the body temperature to be higher at death, but also the septic process would have spread bacteria throughout the body. In this case, the decay process would begin quickly and in a widespread fashion. A septic body that is dead for only a few hours might appear as if it has been dead for several days.

As opposed to the above situations, a thin, unclothed corpse lying on a cold surface with a cool breeze would follow a much slower decomposition process. Very cold climes may slow the process so much that even after several months, the body appears as if it has been dead only a day or two. Freezing will protect the body from putrefaction if the body is frozen before the process begins. Once putrefaction sets in, even freezing the body may not prevent its eventual decay. If frozen quickly enough, the body might be preserved for years.

So, whether a particular corpse actually produces alcohol or not is unpredictable. How long it takes depends upon the conditions the corpse is exposed to. In a corpse in an enclosed garage in Houston in August, this process will be very rapid and the corpse will be severely decayed after 48 hours. If parked in a snow bank in Minnesota in February it might not even begin the decay process until April or May when the spring thaw occurs. And anything in between. The appearance of any alcohol would coincide with the time frame of the bacterial activity.

So how does the ME get around this possibility? How can he determine the actual alcohol level that was present prior to the decay process kicking in? He can’t with any absolute accuracy, but he does have a tool that will help him make a best guess. He can extract the vitreous humor from the victim’s eye—this is the jelly-like fluid that fills the eyeballs. The alcohol level within this fluid matches that of the blood with about a two-hour delay. That is, the level within the vitreous at any given time reflects the blood alcohol level that was present approximately two hours earlier. And the vitreous is slow to decay so it might be intact even though the corpse is severely decayed. By measuring the vitreous level the ME will know the blood alcohol level two hours prior to death and he can then estimate the blood alcohol level at the time of death.

 

 

Bacteria and Time of Death: A New Forensic Tool?

One of the most important things the medical examiner must determine in a death investigation is the time of death. This alone can exonerate some suspects while pointing the finger at others. It can confirm alibis or explode them. It can verify witness statements or reveal them to be false or mistaken. In any murder investigation the time of death becomes a focal point.

Unfortunately there are few, if any, reliable methods for estimating the time of death. Body temperature, rigor mortis, and lividity are simply too inaccurate and fraught with too many variables to lock down the time except in the broadest of ranges.

Perhaps stomach contents are somewhat more reliable but even they can be erroneous. In general the stomach empties 2 to 3 hours after a meal. This means that if a victim was known to have eaten a certain substance at a certain time and that substance is found undigested in the victim’s stomach, the medical examiner can conclude that the death must’ve occurred in less than three hours after the meal. Sounds simple. But even this is unreliable since various food materials digest at different rates and the rate of digestion varies from person to person. The consumption of alcohol or other drugs along with the meal can significantly delay this digestive process.

As you can see, this and the other methods for determining time of death present a problem.

Additionally, if a corpse is buried or tossed into a body of water each of these variables changes. The drop in body temperature, the onset of rigor, the pattern and onset of lividity, and the onset and rapidity of decay can be greatly altered by these environments, making the determination of the time of death even more difficult.

 

 

A new study that will soon be published in the journal Forensic Science International presents research done by forensic biologist Gemma Dickson and colleagues at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. They studied what would happen to a body in a submerged environment, where the normal insect activity seen with corpses discarded on land, would not be in play. They used adult pig heads in the study and periodically sampled the bacteria that populated the skin. They found that the bacteria that colonized the tissues changed through the various stages of decomposition and that these changes just might be useful in determining a more accurate time of death. Much more research must be done to determine if this is indeed a useful and accurate tool but it is intriguing.

 

Q&A: Buried Alive or Bleeding Corpse?

Q: Crime author Lee Goldberg responded to my tweet and said you might be able to help. I’m also an author and am writing a series of mystery stories for kids called The Western Mysteries. During my research I came across this real-life account in a diary entry from 1861:

Nov 5 1861 – Campbell came this AM & got my pick to dig a grave – Miss Abby nash died this morning around 9 oclock, of typhoid fever… She was 17 yrs old -

Nov 6 – Cloudy – Morning I rode Ben to Peacock’s – learned that Miss Nash is to be buried at 10 AM – rode home – hitched Ben & Poncho to wagon – got ready – David and I rode to Peacocks – Took Mrs Peacock & Annie and a gentleman friend of theirs on board – drove to Nash’s – friends & neighbors had assembled – Mr Barquay from Berreyessa officiated as clergyman – he read from the Bible, prayed, exhorted & we sang a hymn to the tune of Wyndham – four of us brought out the coffin & put it in Jim Smith’s spring wagon – She looked very natural – procession moved to grave which was dug over next the fence on the line between Nash’s and Valpy’s farms – a very lonely out of the way place – opened the coffin that all who wished might take last look at corpse – her head was not properly pillowed so that in crossing the rough field I heard it knocking against side of coffin, and a large quantity of blood came from the right nostril – I helped lower her into the grave – funeral over – drove round & left our Peacock passengers & drove home – This funeral was got up on the very cheapest possible scale, and cost old Nash very few dimes – quite a saving

Was she buried alive?

Caroline Lawrence
http://www.romanmysteries.com
http://tomboycowgirl.blogspot.com

A: Corpses do not bleed and I doubt she was buried alive. She could’ve been since the determination of death at that time wasn’t all that easy but most likely she was dead and what came from her nose was not blood.

She could have had trauma to her face and blood could have collected in the sinuses. Blood initially clots and then begins to break down and separate into a contracted clot and serum. The serum, the liquid part of the blood, is usually tinged reddish brown in this circumstance and when they altered her position some of this could have leaked from her nose. This would simply be separated blood following the dictates of gravity but could easily have been confused with active bleeding.

Also this could have been purge fluids. These appear as part of the decay process. These fluids result from decay of the tissues within the head, are blackish in appearance, and flow from the nose and often the mouth. They usually appear a couple of days after death since it takes that long for the decay process to get that far. There are circumstances under which this process is sped up such as in a very warm environment. Another is when someone has an infection. Here bacteria are already scattered throughout the body and therefore the decay process does not depend upon the intestinal tract breaking down first and releasing the bacteria within the bowel into the system. The young lady in this case would already have bacteria in her bloodstream from her typhoid fever and therefore the decay process would proceed much more rapidly.

So she was not buried alive and she did not bleed but rather this was either a broken down clot from her sinuses or purge fluid.