ABSTRACT
Time of death has been the subject of extensive research and can be important in specific deaths. Once death has occurred, post-mortem changes will develop, including the development of hypostatic lividity and rigor mortis. The body will cool and temperature-based methods of determining when death occurred are an important tool in the early post-mortem period. Other techniques in the early period include biochemistry and recently immunohistochemical techniques. Supravitality with electrical stimulation of muscles has also been studied in the early post-mortem phase. Stomach contents have also been used but are now considered wholly unreliable.
After the early period, putrefactive changes develop; the speed with which they occur will depend upon environmental temperatures. If the body is exposed, insect activity is common unless the environmental temperatures are low. Forensic entomology utilizing faunal succession is an important science and requires specialist knowledge.
Some conditions allow for prolonged preservation of the body with adiopocere formation and mummification; this includes bodies buried in permafrost and in peat bogs where a body may be many years old. Use of carbon dating has been applied to determine the age of these types of cases.
In estimating the time of death, a pathologist needs to be cautious and, at best, provide a possible range of time when death may have occurred. Too dogmatic an estimation may result in a miscarriage of justice.
