AF+and+ED

Death Chapter Questions January 31, 2008 Liz and Adelaide

1. a. A manner death of death includes four different reasons why someone died including natural, accidental, suicidal or homicidal. The cause of death is the immediate reason for a person's death, like heart attack or kidney failure.

b. Mechanism of death is the specific body failure that leads to death rather than the broad and immediate found from the cause of death.

c. The larva live as parasites inside the maggots, feeding on their flesh. Pupa is the stage before adulthood in the blowfly life-cycle.

d. Rigor mortis is the stiffening of the skeletal muscles after death and livor mortis is the pooling of the blood in the tissue after death, that leaves the skin a reddish color.

e. Decomposition is the rotting of all tissues and organs, autolysis is the spontaneous breakdown of cells while they self digest.

2. During decomposition the body begins to decompose on the inside first, bacteria living inside the intestines releases carbon dioxide which causes the abdomen to swell. The corpse will continue to bloat as the bacteria remains, feeding on the tissue and releasing more carbon dioxide.

3. The location of the body from country and city cold be determined by many different factors. The examiner may think that the body died in the country because of livor mortis and how fast the body decomposed. Livor mortis happens faster in the body when it is left outside on a hot summer day, like in the country, they can also tell this by the flow of blood and tight watches or belts. The lividity in livor mortis can also determine if the body had been moved, showing how the body was placed when it was decomposing because of the dark color the placement of blood appears on the body, determining if the body died sitting in a chair, face down or on their side. Rigor mortis can also help determine the weather condition because the body stiffens quicker in higher temperatures or in sunlight. The body would be exposed to much more sunlight in the country rather than the city. They could also examine the insects in and around the body that could only be found in the country and not the city. Though many of the insects could be found in a large variety of locations, certain insects could only be found in more rural places, and others in the city.

4. No i don't agree. Rigor moris starts within two hours after death. The stiffness starts in the head and slowly works its way down to the legs. Since the body shows rigor only in the face and neck, then rigor has just started and it is just over two hours. Since there is rigor in the upper torso, the person probably has been dead for a little more than two hours to be able to spread to the upper torso.

5.Some insects are attracted by the smell of the first stage of decomposition and desire to lay their eggs on the warm body. the eggs will then hatch and feed on the nutritious decomposing tissue. Blowflies are the first to arrive on the dead body. Scientist can tell how long the body has been dead by the different stages the blowflies have developed into. Mites and beetles are the last insects to arrive because they desire dry tissues and hair.