Technology1 min ago
finding out what time someone died
8 Answers
My wife found her dad at his home a while back. He'd passed away during the night / early morning. The Police and Paramedics established there was nothing suspicious and it was natural causes, a post mortem was needed as it was a sudden death at home. Again natural causes were confirmed as the cause, the Coroner couldn't establish the time of death and for them there was no reason to. The date of death was recorded as the day he was found.
My wife now feels she needs to know when her dad actually died. I don't know if this another part of the trauma / grieving process [her Mum had died 5 weeks earlier]. I did ask her if she found out, would she then use this as a reason to beat herself up. "… He died at home, alone, should've been there … etc. …"
She maintains that's not the reason - I have my doubts - she just needs to know. She'd spoken to him at 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday, found him on Thursday [the next day] at nine in the morning.
There were the first signs of "lividity" is what either the Paramedic or Policeman said to each other, dark marks almost like bruising on the back of the neck. I know it's an imprecise / inexact science, so many other factors, it was very warm in the flat, heating on constant, set to 22°C. Any ideas please? Sorry this is so longwinded!
My wife now feels she needs to know when her dad actually died. I don't know if this another part of the trauma / grieving process [her Mum had died 5 weeks earlier]. I did ask her if she found out, would she then use this as a reason to beat herself up. "… He died at home, alone, should've been there … etc. …"
She maintains that's not the reason - I have my doubts - she just needs to know. She'd spoken to him at 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday, found him on Thursday [the next day] at nine in the morning.
There were the first signs of "lividity" is what either the Paramedic or Policeman said to each other, dark marks almost like bruising on the back of the neck. I know it's an imprecise / inexact science, so many other factors, it was very warm in the flat, heating on constant, set to 22°C. Any ideas please? Sorry this is so longwinded!
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Just back and it is snowing.
Accuracy for the time of death is impossible in this case and extremely difficult to ascertain under scientific conditions.
What do we know?
1) He died between 4pm on Wednesday and 9.am on Thursday.
2) At 9.am on Thursday, the paramedics reported “first signs of lividity”
What we don’t know!
1) If rigor mortis was present………it was surprising that this want mentioned either at the Coroner’s hearing or by the paramedics, so I shall make a huge assumption……rigor mortis was not present.
2) The body temperature.
I was also interested in the comment by bednobs.
Accepting the paucity of evidence, the fact that the Coroner could not come up with a time of death and my sketchy knowledge of Forensic medicine, my opinion remains the same, in that he died in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Accuracy for the time of death is impossible in this case and extremely difficult to ascertain under scientific conditions.
What do we know?
1) He died between 4pm on Wednesday and 9.am on Thursday.
2) At 9.am on Thursday, the paramedics reported “first signs of lividity”
What we don’t know!
1) If rigor mortis was present………it was surprising that this want mentioned either at the Coroner’s hearing or by the paramedics, so I shall make a huge assumption……rigor mortis was not present.
2) The body temperature.
I was also interested in the comment by bednobs.
Accepting the paucity of evidence, the fact that the Coroner could not come up with a time of death and my sketchy knowledge of Forensic medicine, my opinion remains the same, in that he died in the early hours of Thursday morning.
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