  Mystery
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The three Mortises are less than perfect in pinpointing an actual time of death but they are still a useful tool in the first 24-36 hours after death.
Algor Mortis (cooling of the body)
A body loses heat at a rate of about 1.5 degrees(37 degrees Celsius) per hour until it reaches ambient temperature (the temperature of its environment). A body in a warm room loses heat much slower than one in an icy, flowing stream.
 The sooner after death that the body is found, the more accurately time of death can be assessed by this method. Once the body reaches ambient temperature, all bets are off.
Fat and clothing make good insulators
Children and the elderly tend to lose heat faster, so do people who are chronically ill or emaciated.
Livor Mortis (hypostasis of the blood following death that causes a purplish red discoloration of the skin)
Hypostasis and settling of blood into dependent portions of the body.
Onset: 1-2 hours (range: 20 minutes to 6 hours)
Initially non-fixed then fixed at 8-12 hours
Heat increase and cold decreases the effects.
Rigor Mortis (Muscular stiffening following death.)
The reason the body becomes rigid after death is the loss of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from the muscles. ATP is the compound that serves as the energy for muscular activity, and without it your muscles can’t contract. The presence and stability of ATP depends on a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients, which are lost when the heart stops. When the ATP levels fall, muscles contract and stiffen, producing the rigidity of rigor mortis. The later loss of rigidity and appearance of flaccidity of the muscles occur when the muscle tissue itself begins to decompose as part of the putrefaction process.
Rigor mortis begins throughout the body at the same time, but the muscles become rigid at different rates in a predictable pattern.
Onset: 2-4 hours (range ½ to 6 hours) starting with the smaller muscles of the face and neck and progresses downward in a head-to-toe fashion to the larger muscles.
Maximal at 6-16 hours
Remains for additional 12-24 hours, this state is called the rigid stage of rigor mortis. (During my symposium the coroner showed a few pictures of bodies in this state and it was easy to tell where the alternate word for a dead body was derived “Stiff” i.e Stiff as a board.)
The process reverses itself, and rigidity is lost in the order in which it appeared, beginning with the small muscles and progressing to the larger ones.
After another 12 hours or so, the muscles become relaxed in the flaccid stage of rigor mortis.
Sometimes rigor comes on very quickly after death, especially when ATP levels have been reduced before death, usually by intense physical activity or body heat.
A victim who ran from an assailant prior to death may show the first signs of rigor in the legs, which is where the ATP would be most depleted.
Victims of strychnine poisoning may develop rigor almost immediately because strychnine causes convulsions and muscular spasms that mimic intense physical activity.
Because an elevated body temperature also causes increased ATP consumption, victims of sepsis (fever-causing) process, or those who succumb to heat stroke may rapidly develop rigor mortis.
I want to thank the local coroner Lyle P. Cook and Forensics for Dummies by D.P. Lyle, MD for helping me write this edition of the Mystery Newsletter.
Next month I will talk about how Hollywood gets dying wrong.
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moffet
Milkman: I save mystery nl-s. This is a keeper ... And in the commonwealth ! Love it! Allentown to NC -- TEFF
Thanks for the encouraging words.
Azrael 
Hello, i find these newsletter one of the most informative and fun.
I always find some useful information.
Thank you
As only one of your editors, I hope you continue to learn more about writing a good mystery.
wordlover
As a young girl, Agatha Christie fascinated me. I could not put one of her books down until I knew "whodunnit". I would stay up for two days at times -- I had to know! With other mystery writers, I can usually pick the villain before he/she is named but never with Agatha. I still regard her as the 'Mistress of Mystery'. I was 10 when I read her book, Nemesis. She ignited a flame in my soul and sparks have flown off my pen ever since!
Christie is one of my favorites as well.
Vivian 
Hi, MooMan. I didn't expect to see my "interview" about Carolyn Hart verbatim in your newsletter, but I hope others show an interest in her work. Another good mystery writer is Anne Perry, whose stories take place in Victorian England.
This newsletter will be printed and filed so that I can use the information in my writing. I wish I could afford to attend the forensic writers conference in St. Louis in November. ~~ Viv
Your enthusiam for Carolyn Hart spoke volumes to me and I know I would not have been able to display the same emotion, so I used your words.
I have really enjoyed reading about your choices for your favorite authors... I would like to have more authors to add to this list in my next Newsletter.
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Mystery: May 23, 2007 Issue [#1677]
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