O.k.Today I promised you ‘Drowning,Accident or Murder’ and so here is where i’ll start.
First I will set the scene. O.k. you are forensic pathologist and have just been woken up by a phone call from the police telling you to get down to a scene where a body has just been found dead in a river. So you get dressed and get there.
Its now up to you to decide whether or not this is a case for the police to deal with or not meaning Accident or Murder. They dont wanna be fucking about wasting their time when theres speeding motorists to be dealing with, so you have the body hauled back to yer lab.
START: All you have to go on is what you have. An un-identified body found in a river
V
V
Is there water in the air passages and stomach, and are the lungs swollen?
V
YES>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>V<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<NO
V V
V V
The victim died of wet drowning. The pathologists look for signs V
that the victim struggled to breathe, such as bleeding in the lungs. V
This and other evidence such as leaves or twigs held in a vice like V
grip as the victim tried to clutch at something, suggests the V
drowning was an ACCIDENT. V
Did a spasm in the larynx stop the heart?
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YES>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>V<<<<<NO
V V
V V
Sudden exposure to cold caused an instant HEART ATTACK Did the victim die of cold after
and the victim died of SHOCK, or cold water entered the back prolonged immersion in the water
of the nose and triggered a VAGAL INHIBITION which stopped and exhaustion?
the heart. V
YES>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>V<<<<NO
V V
V V
A drop in the bodies core temperature caused the victim to Are there Diatoms
loose consciousness and they died of HYPOTHERMIA. (single-celled organisms,type of algae)
in the body, and do they match those in
the water where the body was found?
( A sample of the water would have been taken and examined for these Diatoms )
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YES>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>V<<<<<<<<<<<<NO
V V
V V
Victim was alive when they entered the water. The body was dead when it entered
the water. Pathologists now looks for
HOMICIDAL INJURIES that prolonged
immersion may have hidden.
All this would only have given the pathologist a starting point for further investigation and told them that this is a suspicious death and police involvement is needed.
When a body is found in water there is a way of ascertaining whether the person was dead when entering the water or was alive and then drowned, this discovery also allows scientists to pinpoint the approximate location which death occured aswell.
A body which was already dead when put into the water will contain almost no fluid in the lungs or stomach which would be expected in a case of drowning and so should be viewed with suspicion.
A person who has drowned will have fluid in the lungs which will also be distended and also the stomach will contain water as the person fighted for oxygen.
In the water there live these small microscopic organisms called Diatoms, these are small enough to be breathed in by a drowning person and enter the bloodstream to be carried around the body.
Different Diatoms live in different areas and so the location of the drowning can be ascertained by comparing the Diatoms found in the body to the different kinds located in different parts of the country.
Sometimes it is hard to find out whether an injury was sustained before or after death.
The best way to solve this is to measure the amount of white blood cells in the blood. If the person was alive when the injury occured, the brain would instantly recieve the message to dispatch the white blood cells to the damages area to begin to repair it. If the person was brain dead when the injury occured, no such message would have been sent or recieved and the amount of white blood cells in the blood would be the normal amount and not aleviated in any way.
That concludes the ‘Drowning, Accident or Murder?’ part. Hopefully you’ve learned abit more about it than you knew before.
RANDOM INFORMATION: Today, the first time T.V. was used in a murder investigation.
The first time the medium of television was used during the course of a murder investigation, is when the police were trying to trace the whereabouts of a 27yr old WILLIAM PETIT, a suspect in the murder of AGNES BROWN aged 48, found stabbed to death in a field in Chislehurst, Kent on 11th September 1953. Photographs of the fugitive, full face and profile were transmitted on 1st October and a statement giving details of his description was read by John Snagge.
If trying to solve a murder case always keep this in mind.
”In cases of suspected homocide dont take ANYTHING at face value, the perpertrator may well be trying to mislead the investigation and direct attention away from himself.”
Next blog: ‘BITE MARKS’ and ‘The REAL Reason Females Become Killers’
INTO MURDER,KILLERS,FORENSICS? read on... 