AP+Handling+Bodies+Notes

Handling Bodies:
1/16/08

Death Investigator:
• Medical examiner or coroner • Most know the difference b/t death and murder, accidental or suicide • The determine how the death occurred, when it happened, and what caused it • Examine the body and taking notes and drawing diagrams • Ask photographer to take specific pictures • Decides if there should be an autopsy

Manner of Death:
• Natural • such as disease or old age • accidental • suicide • Homicide • Undetermined • All childhood deaths are investigated • “unattended deaths”
 * Disease or old age
 * when someone doesn’t die in a hospital

Discovery Scenes:
o Buried o Soil samples are tested o Exposed o May have missing parts o Submerged in water o May have injures from propellers

Removing the body from crime scene is wrapped in a clean white sheet and lifted so it doesn’t make contact with body fluid.

Time of Death:
o Guessing when the person might have been killed o Not reliable o Someone could be taking something that slows down the blood flow fro the fingers and toes o Someone could have been chased when they were killed and the “antemortem activity could cause immediate rigor” o Body temperature o Discolotarion o Rigor Mortis o Ocular indicators o Food digestion o Personal Factors o Decay/ Decomposition rates
 * The body cools down one to one and half degrees per hour
 * But if the weather is cold it will cause the body temp. to go down at a faster rate
 * Obese people cool down slower than people with little fat
 * • The dark purple color of the body:
 * • Appears one to two hrs after death
 * • Lividity:
 * • Where the heart pumps blood allowing the red and white blood cells to separate
 * • If a dead peson is laying on their back the red blood cells will gather on his back
 * • Bodies that have lost a lot of blood will not change colors
 * • The waste products stiffen the muscles
 * • If eyes remain open after death
 * • The potassium breaks down the red blood cells that enter the eyes causing them to become cloudy
 * • If someone knew the time of death
 * • Depends where the body was buried and if there were any wombs
 * • When the heart stops breathing and skin looks pale
 * • How the body is laying and where the red blood cells form and change colors
 * • Greenish discoloration of the skin
 * • A foul odor occurs
 * • Gases that are produced by the intestines and will turn your skin black
 * • Everything gets pushed through the rectum
 * • Skin blisters

In warm temperature and moist climate the body can turn into a skeleton in a couple of weeks In hot dry climates the body will mummify The enzymes in the digestive system start to eat the tissue

Autopsy:
• Most crucial evidence • Examination of the corpus to tell the time of death
 * to see oneself
 * usually used if the body has been used in a crime
 * can be partial/selective/ or complete examine of the body