Handling+Bodies+TG

-coroner or DI handles the bodies -coroner determines cause of death -five kinds:natural, accidental, suicide, homicide, undetermined -first officer at the scene notifies DI of suspicious death and they rush to the scene -outside body is either buried, exposed, or submerged in water -inside body is generally preserved better -body gets removed and preserved by wrapping it in a clean white sheet to preserve all the evidence -DI makes a guess when the person died by checking body temperature, discoloration (livor mortis), rigor mortis, ocular indicators, food digestion, personal factors, decay/decomposition rate -insects can be used by entomologists to discover evidence about decomposing remains -insects can: show that a body may have been moved, serve as specimens for toxicological or drug analysis, provide DNA materials from insect ingestion contents, support or contradict an alibi, assess when wounds were made to a body -autopsy is the postmortem examination of the body to determine what the cause of death was -usually only part of the body is examined -the body is photographed before anything is done to it -surgeon makes a Y incision on the body to expose the internal organs -different kinds of death:blunt force, gunshot, knife wounds, asphyxiation -all bruises and wounds are photographed -last thing that is examined is the head and brain -many cases where skeletons are put through an autopsy to find out who they are

Forensic Pathologist-aka Coroner->Cause of Death 1. How did it happen 2. when it happened 3. cause of death 4. type of death-natural, homicide, suicidal, accidental, undetermined 5. identify victim

Est. time of death 1. body temp->liver temp 2. Entomology->insects 3. digestion 4. discoloration

1. Rigor mortis->w/in 24 hours. gone after 36 2. Liver Mortis->starts asap, continues-12 hours 3. Algor mortis->starts-1 hour, cool 1-1.5 per hour