Don’t worry this isn’t anything alarming. I’m in the process of writing a whodunit and I just want to know if there are any signs that occur/do not occur in a stab wound that is made after death? Any answers would be a great deal of help. Thanks!
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This happens in The Batman and I thought Batman’s delivery was cool enough I looked it up. A dude’s thumb is cut off while he’s still alive and Batman can tell (after he’s died) because of ecchymosis around the wound. Because his heart was still beating, blood has flown from damaged blood vessels around the wound into the surrounding skin, giving it a bruised purple appearance. If he was dead, and his heart wasn’t beating, this wouldn’t have been there
You’d be AMAZED at how much research is done on cadavers. Basically anything, and I mean anything, you do to a cadaver is tracable. They even take bodies and burn them in a million different ways just to do research on how to detect how a body was burned.
They can probably tell a stab wound was made after death just based on that research alone.
When your heart is beating, blood is pushed through your body and out of the wound. When your heart is not beating, blood will not be pushed out of the wound.
Difficult to tell depends where on the body. Something that may help your writing though to be more accurate. Most knifes are not made to stab people (don’t have a blood channel like a bayonet) thus creating a suction type effect and ‘pulling out’ the internals depending on where it is on the body and the size of the knife. A large kitchen knife to the stomach will most likely pull out intestine ect on the way out.
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The coronor/medical examiner will determine the cause and possible timeline of events. Detectives on scene can use obvious visual cues like no blood at the stab wound may mean the injury happened after the heart stopped beating. No blood pool under the body could mean the body was moved, etc.
I know the sub but still shocked that people don’t do their own preliminary research before posting
If it’s before death, you can tell because the person is likely moving around and will react, maybe scream in pain when stabbed. After death they won’t do that, you wouldn’t hear anything.
The blood should flow differently if there isn’t blood pressure being created by the heart pumping.
The way the body reacts to a wound is different while alive, compared to when theyre dead.
A stab wound antemortem (before death):
– has swollen edges
– coagulated blood
– spurt or splattering
– blood gathering in the surrounding tissue
– may show signs of inflammation or repair
– certain chemical activities are raised in the surrounding area, which can be tested in a lab
For a postmortem wound:
– the edges are close together and fairly clearly defined, hardly any swelling
– barely any blood splatters
– no clotting
– no blood gathering in surrounding area.
The difference comes from the fact that a) blood doesnt flow when youre dead, and b) your body can’t respond to the wound when dead
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