Forensics 101: Determining Time Since Death Based on Decomposition

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In our continuing series on forensics and the skills specific to forensic anthropologists, we’re starting at the beginning when it comes to death investigation by discussing after-death processes.

It’s a sad but true fact that the body breaks down following death in ways that aren’t pretty. Many of us have gotten a glimpse of this process from those unrecognizable lumps commonly labelled 'road-kill'. But whether human or animal, we all undergo the same processes post-mortem. In the case of a murder or accident investigation, forensic scientists can use this progression to determine when the victim died.

Microscopic changes start to occur at the cellular level immediately following death, while visible changes become evident within a few hours:

  • blood no longer circulates and gravity causes it to pool in the lowest parts of the body, turning that flesh a dark purple-red (pallor and livor mortis)
  • body temperature drops at a rate of 1 – 2 oC per hour (algor mortis)
  • the body starts to stiffen approximately 2 to 6 hours following death, persisting for 24 to 84 hours (rigor mortis).

Following these changes, the process of putrefaction begins.

When human remains are actively in this putrefaction phase, a forensic anthropologist may be called in as a consultant to the medical examiner. The general rule is that the more decomposed the remains, the greater for the need for a forensic anthropologist’s expertise.

During putrefaction, the bacteria naturally found in the intestinal and respiratory tracts move into the body’s soft tissues, breaking down the component materials ― proteins, fats and carbohydrates ― and producing the noxious gases associated with the bloat stage of decomposition ― hydrogen sulfide, putrescine, cadaverine, methane, acetone and numerous alcohols and acids. Tissues in the body then liquefy in a specific order ― intestinal tract and circulatory system, lungs and related tissues, urinary tract organs, brain and nervous tissue, skeletal muscles and, finally, connective tissue, leading to complete skeletonization.

It’s a very predictable progression, but one that wasn’t well studied in the past because of society's ethical and spiritual conventions regarding death. However, since 1971, the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee has specialized in the controlled study of decomposed human remains under the leadership of Dr. William M. Bass. Based on the research done at this facility, forensic science has leapt forward, and much of this knowledge has been invaluable in crime scene investigations. Detailed information is now available about those variables that significantly affect human decomposition rates ― temperature, insect colonization, burial, carnivore scavenging, clothing, body weight, trauma and soil pH.

Armed with knowledge of the decomposition process and the variables that can affect it, forensic scientists can estimate with significant accuracy a ‘time since death’ window for a set of fleshed human remains at a crime scene. This is particularly important for highly degraded remains when victim identification is already problematic. As well, a reliable time since death window can contribute to information on how death might have occurred and who might have been involved.

In the next Forensics 101 post, we will be looking at sexing an unknown victim, based purely on skeletal markers. We hope to see you there…

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Resisting the Urge to Give Up When the Going Gets Tough...

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Last week, Scott Eagan ran a series of guest posts at his Greyhaus Literary Agency blog, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as his guest blogger last Friday. Scott was highlighting authors’ struggles and frustrations, and my contribution to this series outlined why we turned down our very first offer of representation last fall. If you’re interested, you can find that short post here: No Agent is Better Than a Bad Agent.

But it was what happened just after turning down that offer that was the bigger blow for me; one that hit me hard enough that I almost gave up on the dream of publication.

When we received the offer from Agent #1, we informed any other agents that had fulls or partials about the offer. Except for one agent, those that only had partials requested the full, and they all started reading. One of the agents, Agent #2, is a BIG agent. She read the manuscript and sent back some very encouraging feedback, calling the manuscript ‘fresh and original’ but saying that she didn’t connect strongly enough and would require editorial changes before offering, so she was stepping aside. As we were already starting to have some misgivings about Agent #1, I asked if she would be willing to discuss those changes further if we didn’t go with the offering agent, and she agreed.

When Ann and I turned down Agent #1, we did so with the tiny bit of security that we could go back to Agent #2 and discuss revising, something we both were willing to do. So, I contacted Agent #2 again. But when she got back to us the next day, it was to decline doing revisions. Her comments about what was wrong with the manuscript had to do with the very heart of our writing, things like tone, which simply couldn’t be changed.

It was a crushing blow. After four hard months of querying over sixty agents, we were done. We’d turned down our only offer of representation and no one else wanted us. And based on the comments Agent #2 offered, did our work even have any value?

I received her e-mail just before lunch that day. I forwarded the message to Ann with only the shortest of comments and then I literally shut down the computer and walked away from it for hours. It was funny ― I withstood all the query rejections (okay, the day that three arrived in thirty minutes was tough) and even the passes on partial or full manuscripts from other agents, but this one hit really hard. Without a doubt, it was the worst crisis of my personal writing life to date. That afternoon I seriously considered throwing in the towel for good. It was just too hard. Was it worth having your ego constantly pummelled to hang in there and then have to start from scratch all over again?

So what stopped me from quitting? In a coincidental moment of timing, that one agent who hadn’t requested a full e-mailed me after dinner that day saying that he enjoyed the partial and would like to see the full manuscript.

We weren’t out of the running after all. Hope springs eternal. And that request reminded me of the subjective nature of this industry ― what one agent will pass on, another agent will love. And it renewed our 'go big or go home' attitude that has been our companion through this whole process. We hadn't worked this hard to give up now; no way, no how.

We took a well-deserved break at that point to mentally regroup, but went back to querying two weeks later. Eight weeks after that we found Nicole and the rest is history.

Do I harbour any bad feelings towards Agent #2? Not at all. She was simply making the best business decision for herself and her agency. But from a writer’s perspective, when we are so heavily invested in the artistic aspect of our craft, the business side of it can be a cruel adversary. Rejections are not just a rejection of our work, but a rejection of us. It’s hard not to take it personally. But we have to keep the business end of the industry in mind during the querying and submission stages because, at that point, the overwhelming majority of decisions will simply be business-related and not about us personally.

What about you? Have you had moments when you’ve been tempted to give up the dream? How did you overcome those feelings?

Photo credit: portobeseno

When an Idea Strikes

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Ideas are crucial to a writer; they are, in fact, a writer’s stock in trade. Granted, it’s the execution of that idea that sets one writer apart from another, but without that initial idea, there is no journey. So how do you ensure that you don’t lose any of those precious ideas?

Like most of you, my life is busy, usually teetering right on the edge of insanity ― working full-time in the lab, a second full-time career as a writer, a family and household to run and life’s daily activities to carry out. On top of that, or just as likely because of the pace I have to maintain, I don’t do ‘nothing’ well. I listen to audiobooks while I cook, garden, wash dishes or drive to work, I plan or write in every spare moment and I can’t even watch TV without analysing the plotline and characterizations on-screen. There is always something going on in my head.

But this means that whenever inspiration hits, I can’t rely on my brain to remember the details. It’s amazing how the great idea from five minutes ago that was guaranteed to save my story can be gone in a puff of smoke this instant. It’s... uh... because there’s simply too much in my brain and things keep falling out (okay, it really has to do with short-term memory capacity and the amount of inflowing information, but that’s the explanation that only a science geek would love).

I’ve learned the hard way that when the lightning bolt of inspiration hits, I’ve only got a few minutes to find some way to record it. I don’t need every last detail, just enough to jog my memory later when I’ve got time to make complete notes. My most useful tool for this is the notepad and pen I carry at all times (I can be seen making notes in just about any situation). I’ve sent myself voice mail messages to my home answering machine. I’ve used Dragon Dictation on my iPod Touch. I’ve sent myself e-mails or direct messages through Twitter. The worst is when inspiration hits in the shower. I think I should invest in a set of Crayola bathtub crayons for making notes on the tile because I’ve come tearing out the shower on a few occasions, wrapped in a towel and making a beeline for my laptop to get an idea down before it evaporates. Ann, my writing partner, keeps paper and pencil by her bed and has been known to make notes at 3 a.m. Now that she works from home, her current method of recording ideas is an Excel file where she can organize items chronologically and then match them later with their resolution. Her worst place for inspiration to hit is standing in three feet of water when she’s working on her pond. Perhaps she should start keeping chalk handy for note taking on the rock retaining wall.

I know we’re not the only writers suffering from Overflowing Brain Syndrome. So how do you ensure that inspiration doesn’t pass you by? Please share in the comments because we’d all love to hear your strategies.

Photo credit: fostersartofchilling

The Kindness of Strangers When Researching Your Novel

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About six weeks ago, Katie Ganshert had an excellent post about when it’s time to stop using the Internet for research and use real resources instead. You can read that post here. Katie’s post was very much the inspiration for this one.

I’m a firm believer in going to the source for information, be it a peer-reviewed scientific journal for primary data or interviewing someone about their real-life experience. For instance, our current work-in-progress involves arson and the science of fire investigation. To write this manuscript properly, Ann and I will be working with a close friend who is a Captain and a 20-year veteran of a California Fire Department. There’s nothing like real life experience to give your manuscript an edge, especially if you’re aiming for gritty realism.

This was something I already knew when Ann and I started brainstorming DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT in the summer of 2009. We’re both researchers at heart and by training, and we both believe in going the extra mile to make sure the details are correct. This is all very doable when we’re looking at details surrounding the science, but when it came to learning about real and realistic police protocol, we hit a wall. Our female protagonist is a Trooper in the Massachusetts State Police, but when it comes to Internet information about law enforcement, we found details to be alarmingly scarce.

I had already decided that the only way to do this manuscript properly was to be physically standing in the locations where we were going to set the story. I’m a very visual writer; for years, Ann has assisted in the process by finding every photo she could of whatever it was we were writing at the time. It’s always paid off beautifully, but this time photos weren’t going to cut it. I needed to see those locations with my own eyes.

I also knew that I had to take that extra step and actually contact the Massachusetts State Police for information. After writing five novels together, we knew that this was going to be the one that we’d take to literary agents; we finally felt ready. But I still wasn’t confident about my role as a writer for anything other than actual writing. I’m just a scientist and an unpublished author; what right did I have calling busy people with important jobs to take up their time to discuss my project? And, truthfully, it seemed trivial to me, compared to what they do. Nevertheless, I put on my ‘author’s hat’, screwed up my courage, and cold-called the Massachusetts State Police. I was passed to the Director of Communications who requested more information via e-mail. I provided additional details of the project and told him that I’d be happy to discuss the information with him over the phone, or that I would be traveling to Boston in a few weeks and could meet with him then.

To my shock, he arranged a meeting with the District Attorney for Essex County, Jonathan Blodgett, and Detective Lieutenant Norman Zuk, head of the Essex Detective Division, Essex County’s homicide unit. *gulp* Suddenly my little meeting with the Communications Director turned into a meeting with both the D.A. and top cop of Essex County.

To say that I had an attack of nerves would be putting it lightly. I was already feeling out of my league and now I was supposed to meet with these important men? Me? And really, why did they want to meet with me anyway? Were they going to try to stop me from using their department for our novel?

I flew down to Boston to start my research trip. I rented a car and drove to Salem to meet with them. But what is it about cops? Why is it that even when you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re still scared to death of them? Add to that major nerves and feeling way out of my depth, and I was terrified. Literally shaking. Nevertheless, I walked in there and tried to brazen my way through it.

And guess what happened? When Steve O’Connell, the Communications Director, showed me into the D.A.’s conference room, D.A. Blodgett and Det. Lt. Zuk both walked in carrying gifts for me. Then they asked what they could do for me.

I was stunned. Here I was imposing on these gentlemen and taking up their valuable time, and they wanted to know what they could do for me.

They gave me an hour of their time in the conference room, answering every question on the list Ann and I had prepped from homicide protocols to Crime Scene Services to interagency cooperation. Then D.A. Blodgett had to leave as he was already late for his next meeting, but Det. Lt. Zuk took me on a personally guided tour of the Essex Detective Division, including their conference room (that held their murder board for all open and in-trial cases) and the detectives’ bullpen. When I asked him about their detailed protocols, he handed me the binder of protocols from his own office and told me I could take them with me as long as I returned them to him later.

Once again I was floored. What I originally thought would be a short phone conversation had become a crucial meeting yielding priceless information, including their official protocols that I was allowed to copy and keep.

When it comes to research, there’s nothing like talking to those men and women who do the job you want to portray in your writing, or who have knowledge that you lack. These strangers were immensely kind and forthcoming, and they genuinely enjoyed my interest in their work and their department. And their generosity has continued. When I had a few details I wanted to confirm during our final edit two months ago, I contacted Det. Lt. Zuk, asking if I could have a few minutes with one of his officers. He sent me his cell phone number and told me to call him personally. Another very generous gift of his time and knowledge.

What about you? Have you found that people are willing to go above and beyond to help you in your writing? That rather than being annoyed by your questions, that they have instead been flattered and willing to assist you?

Photo credit: 1photos

Forensics 101: So You Found Human Remains... Who You Gonna Call?

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The answer to that question is obvious ― you call 911 (or Ghostbusters, if the urge hits). But the question really is: who are the crime scene investigators going to call? Sometimes the choice is clear ― the victim is fully fleshed and death has occurred fairly recently, measuring the time since death in minutes, hours or days. It's even more straightforward if the victim is found indoors in a scavenger-free area (unfortunately, any normal house cat or dog can become an opportunistic scavenger if confined for an extended period of time with a deceased human). In this case, any fully trained medical examiner or coroner is more than capable of performing the required autopsy.

However, there are certain circumstances where the medical examiner may decide that additional expertise is required. A forensic anthropologist will often be called in to consult if the remains are found:

  • a considerable time after death, allowing for advanced decomposition
  • in a location that promotes either accelerated decomposition or mummification of the body
  • exposed to scavengers, resulting in partial or complete tissue removal
  • already fully skeletonised, or are suspected to be historical remains
  • severely burned (Crow-Glassman Scale1 levels 3, 4 and 5)
  • after prolonged time in a marine environment
  • as victims of a mass disaster (ie. plane crashes, the Oklahoma City bombing or following natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina)

In Forensic Osteology - Advances in the Identification of Human Remains, Dr. Kathleen J. Reichs defines forensic anthropology as "a subdiscipline of physical anthropology that applies the techniques of osteology2 and biomechanics3 to medicolegal problems". In layman’s terms, a forensic anthropologist studies bone structure/composition and decomposition, and assists as part of the forensics team when investigating a death.

What expertise can a forensic anthropologist bring to an investigation? While not an exhaustive list, those skills include determining:

  • time since death, based on knowledge of decomposition rates in different climates and environments
  • time since death based solely upon skeletal structure when no soft tissue remains
  • sex of the victim from skeletal markers
  • age at death from skeletal indicators or using histological4 techniques
  • likely ancestry of the victim
  • childhood and recent geographic locations based on the analysis of the mineral composition of bone
  • method of death as a result of gross skeletal trauma (ie. blunt/sharp force trauma, gunshot wounds, dismemberment etc.)
  • method of death based on the analysis of macroscopic and microscopic tool/kerf marks on bone (this includes the ability to identify and exclude post-mortem scavenging)
  • victim identification using facial reconstruction techniques, either two- or three-dimensional

My own personal writing relies very heavily upon these skills. As a scientist and as a long-time lover of mysteries and crime fiction, I am fascinated with the science of forensic anthropology. Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing a more detailed look at forensic anthropology as an aspect of crime fiction, mixed in with my regular blog posts that are more specifically related to writing. For me, the two go hand in hand, and I’m thrilled to be able to share this aspect of my writing with you. In the next Forensics 101 post, I’ll discuss how decomposition relates to time since death in a murder investigation. Hope to see you there…


         1 – The Crow-Glassman Scale is a standardized classification to define burn damage in fire victims
         2 – osteology - the study of the structure and function of bones
         3 – biomechanics - the study of mechanics of a living organism
         4 – histology – the study of the microscopic structure of plant or animal tissue

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons