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Sep 16, 2019 · According to new research, the dead may not always rest in peace… quite literally. For more than a year after death, corpses move around "significantly", and this finding could be important for forensic investigations.
- Overview
- Bodies keep on shifting as they decompose
Researchers studying the process of decomposition in a body after death from natural causes found that, without any external “assistance,” human remains can change their position. This discovery has important implications for forensic science.
Often, forensic scientists will assume that the position in which they find a dead body is the one that the person was in at the time of death — unless, that is, there is evidence that external factors, such as scavengers or a perpetrator, may have altered it.
However, new research led by Alyson Wilson — from Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia — now suggests that human bodies can actually be somewhat restless after death.
This discovery — which Wilson and colleagues have not yet reported in a paper they have published — is linked to a larger project, concerning the use of time-lapse imaging techniques to estimate the time since death. This latter project’s findings appear in Forensic Science International: Synergy.
For the research, the investigators had access to a donated human body — “a mature male who died of natural causes.”
The researchers recorded the body’s full decomposition within the premises of the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER), the only body farm in Australia.
In this research, the investigators were able to make sure that scavenging animals that might feed on decaying flesh could not reach the body, and thus alter its position.
The team took photos of the decomposition process of the body over more than 17 months and found that the remains appeared to move on their own.
For instance, while they initially placed the arms alongside the body, at one point, the researchers note, the arms shifted and were flung to one side.
“We think the movements relate to the process of decomposition, as the body mummifies and the ligaments dry out,” explains Wilson in an interview for the Agence France-Presse.
Wilson and colleagues believe that understanding when such shifts are likely to occur during the process of decomposition could help forensic scientists provide more accurate estimates of the time of death.
It could also, the researchers add, help reduce the possibility that forensic investigators will make incorrect deductions about crime scenes.
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