Analyzing Time of Death
On police or crime TV shows such as C.S.I., the forensic investigator often asks,
"what is the TOD?" This refers to the time oh death or the exact moment when a
person died. Temperature is an important indicator telling investigators when a
person died. Organs that respond most quickly to changes in body temperature
are the liver and the brain, and it's due to their mass and density. By analyzing
these organs,a coroner can tell the TOD. After death, a person's body temperature
starts to lower to that of the surrounding environment at a rate of 1.27 degrees
Celsius per hour. Normal body temperature is 30.5 degrees Celsius. So if the
police find a murder victim with a body temperature of 25.4 degrees at 1:30 a.m.,
the person is likely to have been killed 4~5 hours before.