Life Sciences Commons^™

Improving Methods To Estimate Time Of Death From Body Temperature, Carly Berdan

Theses

By protocol, ambient and body temperatures are collected at every investigated death scene. These data has been used since 1839 to estimate the time of death, a crucial factor when it comes to cases of unnatural deaths and homicides. The Glaister Equation and Henssge's nomogram, commonly used to calculate estimated time of death, are inconsistent and often do not agree with each other. Therefore, my objective was to evaluate and improve them.

I collected data in the field and consistently measured temperature data. Furthermore, I was granted access to a database of every death in New Jersey and published data. …