Current state of the problem of forensic medical determination of the time since death (literature review)

Abstract

Determining the time since death is a key issue for forensic authorities when working with a corpse at the scene of death. After all, it is precisely the accurate data provided by the forensic medical expert that makes it possible to answer important questions during the investigation of a crime. Despite the enormous amount of fundamental research conducted over many decades and devoted to the exact establishment of the time since death, this problem has not been solved yet. Despite the obtained promising results, most of the proposed methods were characterized as unreliable due to sensitivity to the influence of many external and internal modifying factors. In our opinion, it is promising to combine different methods of postmortem interval diagnostics for the simultaneous analysis of several components, which will allow taking into account various causes of death, pathological conditions and other factors that can influence the obtained result.