Forensic Scientists Develop New Method for Establishing Time of Death

Posted on July 8, 2015

Forensic scientists have developed a new method for establishing the time of death of a corpse. The method provides an exact time of death for as long as 10 days after a person died.

A group of researchers at the University of Salzburg first observed how fast muscle proteins and enzymes degrade in pigs. They found some of the proteins analyzed showed no form of degradation until after 240 hours. Specific degradation products of other proteins appear at a specific time after death.

The researchers note that this is a significant improvement over current methods which are only able to cover the first 36 hours post mortem. BBC News reports that the core body temperature method of determining the exact time of death works only up to 36 hours after death.

Dr Peter Steinbacher, who is leading the research, says in a statement, "It is highly likely that all muscle proteins undergo detectable changes at a certain point in time, and this would extend the currently analysed timeframe even further."

The researchers have already started studying human samples and say they are detecting similar changes in human muscle tissue. The researchers used SDS-PAGE, Western blotting and casein zymography to determine the degradation level of selected proteins in biceps femoris and vastus lateralis muscle of human corpses.

Steinbacher says, "We were able to detect similar changes and exactly the same degradation products in human muscle tissue as we had in our pig study."

The scientists say results from using human muscle degradation in forensic analysis could be delivered within a day. The findings were reported in the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology.

PIGS