front 1 autopsy | back 1 systematic examination of the entire body following suspicious or unexpected deaths, public health concerns, family requests performed by a medical examiner or coroner |
front 2 gross examination | back 2 a visual examination or inspection of organs and tissues before microscopic testing |
front 3 cause of death | back 3 the disease or injury which caused trauma |
front 4 mechanism of death | back 4 the exact physiological event that led to death |
front 5 manner of death | back 5 whether the death was natural or unnatural (homicide, accident, undetermined) |
front 6 physiological time of death | back 6 vital functions stop |
front 7 estimated time of death | back 7 medical examiner's estimate |
front 8 legal time of death | back 8 time of death on certificate (when the body is found or pronounced dead) |
front 9 postmortem | back 9 after death |
front 10 algor mortis | back 10 change in body temperature that begins immediately after death, reaches environmental temperature within 24 hours |
front 11 rigor mortis | back 11 stiffening of the body muscles that occurs 2-4 hours after death, going from head to neck to arms to legs |
front 12 When does full rigor occur? | back 12 8-12 hours after death, fixes position |
front 13 livor mortis | back 13 blood pools at part of body facing ground because of gravity, leads to bluish skin with early signs in the first 2 hours and full signs in 5 |
front 14 When does fixed lividity occur? | back 14 8-12 hours after death |
front 15 When do the corneas cloud after death? | back 15 3 to 4 hours |
front 16 decomposition | back 16 turns green, bloats, bacteria breaks tissues and release gas in putrefaction 36-48 hours after death |
front 17 What halts rigor mortis? | back 17 decomposition |
front 18 insect activity | back 18 insect eggs, larva, bugs 1-145 hours |
front 19 scene marker | back 19 clues left at the scene used to establish a timeline |
front 20 ambient temperature | back 20 air temperature of environment; can affect algor mortis and rate of temperature change |
front 21 analog thermometer | back 21 liquid expands and rises when warm and contracts and falls when cool |