How does forensic know how long a body has been dead?

Question

I’ve always been curious on how they know how long a body has been dead for? For example, if they say “the body has been dead for 2 hours”, how come it’s not 2 days, weeks, etc..?

edit: spelling

In: Biology

Answer 1

In most cases, if you’ve reached rigor Mortis, that usually lasts like 48 hours? Starting around hour 4 of death. You can’t really tell down to the exact minute when someone has died. Especially if you’re basing it off rigor mortis. Sine that lasts almost 2 days. Then other things happen after, and so on. Its basically just a guess, based on where the body is at in decomposition. But could be days off the actual time of death.

Edit: you should look up ‘ask a mortician’ on YouTube. Shes very informative.