Activity 11-1CALCULATING TIME OF DEATH USING RIGOR MORTIS Directions: Work in pairs to answer the following questions. Show your work on a separate sheet of paper as needed. Refer to your notes for additional information. Part AEstimate the approximate time of death for the following situations. Explain each of your answers: The person has just died or has been dead for 36-48 hours The per
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Activity 11-1
CALCULATING TIME OF DEATH USING RIGOR MORTIS
Directions: Work in pairs to answer the following questions. Show your work on a separate sheet of paper as needed. Refer to your notes for additional information.
Part A
Estimate the approximate time of death for the following situations. Explain each of your answers:
The person has just died or has been dead for 36-48 hours
The person has been dead for about half a day. It takes 12 hours for rigor to compute throughout the body.
The body has been dead for about 6-8 hours because rigor mortis takes 12 hours to compute so it must be before 12 hours but over 6.
The body has been dead for 15-36 hours because at the stage rigor mortis begins o end so some parts of the body may be stiffer than others.
Rigor mortis has just started so they’ve been dead for about 2-6 hours
He’d applied more pressure and had speed up the process on that specific area
Part B
Estimate the time of death based on the following information:
She has been dead for about 15-16 hours, rigor is beginning to stop. She may have been dead for less time because of the heat.
He has been dead for about 12 hours or more because of the cold temperature
He was probably dead for more than 12 hours. Rigor mortis takes longer the bigger you are and the colder the temp.
Because she had just finished running
They just died. Rigor mortis doesn’t start until 2-6 hours after death.
They’ve been dead for about 12 hours. It takes 12 hours for rigor mortis to complete through the whole body.
Probably more than 12 hours because cold temperatures slow down rigor mortis.
She’s been dead for about 6-8 hours or less. Hot temps speed up the decaying process/ rigor mortis.
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