Lumen Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 6
Your stories
The time
of the crime
Every ‘whodunnit’ reader and amateur sleuth knows
the vital importance of determining the time of death.
Yet, explains leading forensic pathologist Roger Byard –
who worked on the infamous Snowtown barrels murders
– in the ‘real world’ things are not always quite so simple.
This means that although the stages of change after death
such as rigor mortis, falling temperature, decomposition and
skeletonisation are standard, the time taken is extremely variable.
It is affected by a person’s metabolism, health status, weight, the
ambient temperature, degree of exposure and clothing.
Several years ago, I wrote an editorial for a forensic journal
entitled ‘Timing - the Achilles heel of forensic pathology’ which I
started with a quote from Einstein that said that ‘time is an illusion’.
He may well have been correct, however for lawyers, illusions are
not generally admissible in court (unless of course it involves their
perceived excellence in the field), and so the expectation of a very
rigid estimation of time can become one of the most crucial aspects
of a case.
Simple examples involving the acceleration of decomposition
occur with obesity (larger bodies tend to hold heat for longer
periods of time) and with high blood sugar levels in diabetes
mellitus (high sugars enhance the growth of bacteria).
The prosecution tends to want the time of an event to be
reduced to minutes, whereas the defence would prefer it to be
years; the obvious reason behind this polarisation is that the
shortest time limits the number of individuals who may have been
involved, and the longest time may implicate pretty much anyone.
It is very common on forensic programs on television for the
somewhat quirky forensic pathologist to turn up to a death scene
and prognosticate after a minimal examination that the time of
death was clearly at two minutes past midnight. If only life were
so simple.
The time for the stomach to become empty after a meal,
so-called gastric emptying time, used to be heavily relied upon
in courts to establish a plausible period between eating and death.
Although several high-profile cases relied upon this evidence for
convictions, it is now recognised that this too is completely
unreliable and that it is affected by a large number of variables
ranging from the consistency of the food to the mental status of
the victim. The most appropriate statement to be made if food is
found in the stomach at autopsy is that death occurred some time
after eating.
My response to that is that it could well have been two minutes
past midnight – but maybe plus or minus a week! The reason for
my somewhat tongue-in-cheek modification of the time of death
is that biological processes are not discrete boxes but are a
continuum with every person responding differently.
One of my earliest complex cases was the now infamous
Snowtown ‘bodies in the barrels’ serial killings. I will never forget
the Friday morning when we were trying to work out exactly how
to approach six sealed barrels which, as it turned out, contained
eight whole and partly dismembered bodies.
“ONE OF MY EARLIEST COMPLEX CASES WAS THE NOW INFAMOUS
SNOWTOWN ‘BODIES IN THE BARRELS’ SERIAL KILLINGS. I WILL NEVER
FORGET THE FRIDAY MORNING WHEN WE WERE TRYING TO WORK OUT
EXACTLY HOW TO APPROACH SIX SEALED BARRELS WHICH, AS IT TURNED
OUT, CONTAINED EIGHT WHOLE AND PARTLY DISMEMBERED BODIES.”
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