Todeszeitbestimmung durch Messung der zentralen Hirntemperatur

Abstract

The central brain temperature was recorded in 53 human corpses, stored at constant ambient temperatures between 10 degrees and 30 degrees C. The measurements were started on average 1.6 h post mortem and continued for 8-50 h. The sigmoidal shape of the temperature curves fitted the mathematical model of Marshall and Hoare (1962). This model provides a precise description of the temperature curves. For 44 corpses, studied at temperatures between 10 degrees and 25 degrees C, the time of death was calculated using fixed values for the adaptation parameters of the model. The margins of error for the 95% tolerance limit were +/- 1.5 h up to 6.5 h post mortem, +/- 2.5 h between 6.5 and 10.5 h post mortem and +/- 3.5 h between 10.5 and 13.5 h post mortem. For the recommended practical application a "brain temperature--time of death" nomogram is presented. We found that the rate of cooling was influenced by the amount of hair. Furthermore, it has been argued that the study method could be improved further. In consequence, we expect the central brain temperature to be even more accurate in the calculation of the time of death than has been discussed and shown on the basis of the present material.

Time of death of victims found in cold water environment

“…Usually clothing decreases the evaporation and conduction, but the data on the effect of wet clothing is limited. To our known the effect of wet clothing on body cooling has only been studied by Henssge and Brinkmann [14] in association of a court case. In that study, 12 clothed cadavers were immersed for 4-10 min in water and were left overnight with wet clothing in closed room or were laid out on wet lawn.…”

“…The most important drawback is the current limited supply of case-derived data to be applied on choosing correction factors [8,13]. The knowledge about the effect of water immersion on body cooling is based on a the study by Henssge and co-worker [12,14], in which on 29 corpses with known time of death were immersed undressed in a tub holding 1,000 l water of temperatures 20, 10 or 0 8C. It was found that the wet naked bodies cooled more rapidly than bodies in standard environment and that the body weight had to be multiplied by a corrective factor of 0.5 to obtain correct post-mortem times.…”

Post-Mortem Estimation of Time of Death of Dogs Based on Measurements of Kidney Temperature in Comparison with Rectal Temperature

“…(Henssge, 1988) There are other organs which are used to determine body temperature. These include the brain, where a highly precise measurement is obtained in the fi rst 6 h after death [28,29]. A signifi cant factor in the case of the brain is that the weight of the body has no effect on its temperature.…”

Todeszeitbestimmung ? Integration verschiedener Teilmethoden

“…Bezfiglich der Einzelheiten wird auf die Literatur verwiesen (Henl3ge 1979(Henl3ge , 1981(Henl3ge , 1982HenBge et al 1984a, b Es empfiehlt sich, die evtl. Prfifung jener Kriterien, welche bis zur Erkennbarkeit des Ergebnisses Zeit ben6tigen, zum Zeitpunkt der Prtifung der anderen Kriterien einzuleiten (Brechen der Starre, ggf.…”