The body felt cool to the touch. The thermometer gave a reading of 70˚F. No rigor mortis was evident, but permanent livor mortis had set in, with blood pooling along the back. There was no noticeable increase in bloating or bacterial activity in the digestive system and no putrefaction. The man had been dead for over four days. How is that possible?

Question

Biology

Robert Fletcher

7 November, 17:35

The body felt cool to the touch. The thermometer gave a reading of 70˚F. No rigor mortis was evident, but permanent livor mortis had set in, with blood pooling along the back. There was no noticeable increase in bloating or bacterial activity in the digestive system and no putrefaction. The man had been dead for over four days. How is that possible?

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Mark · Answer 1

Basically enzyme activities are affected by drop in temperature. in additions the corpse was cool to touch. Therefore this explains while there was no bloating or bacteria activity since the decomposing bacteria enzymes were inactive because of the cold temperature.

Consequently, if the Livor mortis (lividity) is + 8hrs 0-4days, evidently the corpse must have been refrigerated after livor mortis sets in, with the decomposition slowed down by the cold environment.

Notes: Algor mortis is 26.8hrs, and there was no algor mortis.