Technologies in a forensic medical examination

2020: Use of the technology allowing to learn the exact time of stay of a corpse in water

At the beginning of May, 2020 it became known that forensic scientists had a technology allowing to learn the exact time of stay of a corpse in water. All necessary researches are complete, and development is transferred to the British law enforcement agencies for practical application.

Usually at detection of a corpse time of death can be estimated on rigidity of muscles, body temperature or, in the started cases, on activity of insects. Unfortunately, if the corpse was in water, these methods are useless. However the new research assumes that time of death after all can be estimated on bone proteins.

Forensic scientists had a technology allowing to learn the exact time of stay of a corpse in water

The scientists from the British university of Northumbria headed by doctor Noemi Procopio began with the premises of fresh carcasses of a mouse in bottles with the sea, pond, mains or chlorinated water similar to pool water. Some corpses left in bottles for a week while others held within three weeks - these experiences imitated a different posthumous interval of immersion as it is called by forensic scientists.

Then researchers extracted proteins from bones of a shin of a mouse and analyzed them using mass-spectrometry. They found out that concentration of the protein known as fructose-bisfosfat-aldomanhole And, decreased in corpse bones with constant and predictable speed irrespective of water type in which there was a body.

Bones of the sunk corpses, as a rule, are protected by muscles and other bodies, so less than other fabrics, become food of deathbirds. Development of the British university of Northumbria is intended to help police with investigations. At the same time researchers emphasize that concentration of protein not necessarily specifies murder time, it only reflects duration of finding of a body in water.^[1]

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