Estimating the time of immersion of bodies found in water - an evaluation of a common method to estimate the minimum time interval of immersion

Abstract

The estimation of the time of immersion is a common problem in forensic medicine. In addition to several rules of thumb, which give only a rough estimation of the time of immersion, a table for estimating the minimum time interval of immersion was published in Germany about 40 years ago. This table was developed taking into account signs of progressive putrefaction and maceration and the actual water temperature and was based on observations on originally 277 bodies recovered from water. The reliability of this table was checked 10 years after the original description by the same working group.In the present paper results of estimating the time of immersion are presented by applying this table on 73 bodies with known postmortem interval. Since comparing the average monthly water temperatures used in the table, the actual water temperatures have risen during the last 40 years. Especially in summer, reliable results can only be expected when the actual water temperature is similar to the temperatures in the table. Especially for higher water temperatures, the time interval of immersion may be underestimated when using the table since systematic observations on the progression of putrefaction in correlation to the risen water temperature are missing. Therefore the table should be adapted to the risen water temperatures.