• Question: How can you estimate how long a person has been dead?

    Asked by yumna to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Philip Dolan

      Philip Dolan answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      On some episodes of CSI I know they use how old the insects that are eating the body to gauge how long it’s been decomposing. But they can also resolve number plates on grainy CCTV images by digitally enhancing reflections from screw heads so I wouldn’t take that to be 100% accurate.

    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      If they drowned I would just look at what time their watch stopped. Same with fire.

    • Photo: Ceri Brenner

      Ceri Brenner answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      It depends on how long they’ve been dead i suppose. If it’s relatively soon (days, weeks, months) then forensic scientists can use their knowledge of how the body decomposes over time and the changes that the body goes through. Or if it’s years and hundreds of years, then scientists can use carbon dating (google it) to get a rough estimate of how long the person has been dead for.

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