Page 125 - CFDI Guide

CFDI SPECIAL MODULES IN DEATH / SBI CRIMINAL DEFENSE INVESTIIGATIONS

Understanding Time of Death

I. In Criminal Defense Investigations
One element of every crime is date and time of the offense. To be convicted, the defendant must be

connected to the date and time of the event leading to and causing death (not necessarily the time of
death – which may be minutes, hours, days – even weeks and years later). A death 20 hours to 20

years after a motor vehicle collision, due to complications as a consequence of the motor vehicle
collision has a Manner and Cause of Death back to the original event. Therefore, criminal charges may

follow.

Because the Time of Death (TOD) may implicate or exclude a person as a suspect, law enforcement

wants as focused a TOD as possible. Unless the death or event is witnessed, recorded, etc. – only an
approximate TOD is available. This is a window as to when the death or event causing death occurred
– Post-Mortem Interval (PMI). The PMI is based on circumstances, scene, decedent physical state,

biochemistry and other empirical – not singular – evidence.

II. Determining Time of Death

These may include when last seen alive (receipts, mail pickup or not collected, security cameras,
neighborhood canvass, etc.); known routines (work, errands, walks, appointments, calendar events,

and sleep / wake patterns); electronic data includes cell phone activity (calls, text messages, opened
and unopened voicemail, browser history); computer history (similar to smart phone history); status of

phone and laptop / tablet charged, watches and fitness devices, vehicle data (GPS, calls, entertainment
center data, ‘blackbox’ data), medical device data (many medical devices record and transmit patient

data – CPAP, O2, pacemakers, special beds), etc.

Physical changes to the body begin at death – hair and fingernails do not continue to grow (skin
shrinks). At scene assessment and autopsy assessment are noted livor mortis (settling of the blood to

lowest point of gravity), algor mortis (body temperature – internal and to the touch), rigor mortis
(stiffening of the muscles), and tache noire (drying of the exposed eye sclera – whites), and stages of

decomposition. Each of these are dependent on body size and mass (including BMI), environment and
temperature, clothing, and biochemistry (including drugs – i.e. ecstasy raises body temperature).

These were covered in more detail in the pre-requisite webinar series.

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