How a Body Decays

The Basics
One of the primary and vital roles of any coroner and medical examiner is the determination of a time of death. In many cases the time of death is listed, but often in cases of suicide or homicide this is not so. When no time of death is provided it is up to the coroner to examine the body for signs of a time of death, and track various processes within the corpse that will give hints and provide sign-posts of information.

The way the body decays, and its rate of decay is one of the easiest and most usable methods to determine the time of death. The body's decay is a complex process referred to as Putrefaction, that breaks down into two basic types of process Putrefaction and Autolysis.

Though the body breaks down in generally predictable ways, each corpse is unique and is contained within a unique environment. both the make up of the body and the state of the environment around it will change both the rate of the decay and the subtleties/specifics of it. Making each case unique but determinable.

Autolysis
The process of Autolsysis is equitable to self consumption. As the body dies and begins to decay the enzymes contained within various cells throughout the body will begin to breakdown and disintegrate the cells which compose the corpse. Autolysis is a process that is quickened by heat and slowed by cold.

Putrefaction
The process of Putrefaction itself is that in which bacteria destroys and attacks the tissues that compose the body. Left unchecked the process of Putrefaction will eventually leave nothing remaining of a corpse but the skeleton. The majority of the bacteria originate from the intestinal tract of the deceased.

Putrefaction is an ugly, unseemly and generally predictable process. It follows a given set of patterns that allow coroners and medical examiners to determine times of death, though these processes and the rate at which they occur will change drastically based upon the environmental factors, and the health of the deceased.

Putrefaction is a process that can be slowed, even stopped, by cold however once it begins to set in fully to a corpse even freezing it cannot always prevent decomposition.