What Time Did the Stiff Die?
What is rigor mortis and how do parts of the body that have or have not entered the rigor state determine the time of death?
In this article, I will discuss what rigor mortis is and explain how time of death is determined in a dead body, or sometimes called "stiff," when investigators are called to the scene of a crime.
What is rigor mortis?
Rigor mortis refers to the stiffening and contraction of muscles caused by chemical reactions that take place in the muscle cells following death.
The reason that a body becomes stiff or rigid after death is due to the absence of molecules called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from the muscle cells. ATP is the energy currency of all cells in the body especially muscle cells. Without ATP, muscles can not contract. The presence and maintenance of ATP levels is dependent upon the steady supply of oxygen and nutrients, which are lost when the heart stops. When ATP levels diminish, muscles contract and stiffen up, producing the rigidity of rigor mortis. When there is loss of rigidity and the appearance of flaccidity of the muscles, this is due to the decomposition aspect of the putrefaction process of the muscle cells and tissues.
How is time of death determined?
Rigor mortis sets in throughout the entire body at the same time following death. However, the muscles become rigid at different rates in a predictable pattern. In ideal conditions (i.e. room temperature is 70 degree Fahrenheit), rigor mortis sets in as follows:
• About 2 hours after death, rigor mortis is first detected in the small muscles of the face and neck and proceeds downward in a cephalocaudal (head-to-toe) direction to the larger muscles.
• Between 8 and 12 hours after death, the body is completely rigid and is fixed in the position of death.
• 18 hours thereafter, the body remains fixed. This is called the rigid state of rigor mortis.
• After about 30 hours following death, the process of rigor reverses itself, and rigidity is lost in the order in which it appeared. That is, loss of rigidity begins in the face and neck and proceeds from the head-to-toe direction.
• About 38 to 42 hours following death, the muscles become relaxed when entering the flaccid state of rigor mortis.
The states of rigor mortis are only useful for determining the time of death during the first 36 to 48 hours after death under ideal conditions.
So whenever "Alex Woods" of CSI: Miami is called to the crime scene and mentions that death occurred about two hours ago from the time she firsts examines the body at the crime scene, she bases this on the fact that rigor has set in face and neck but not the rest of the body.
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