Database of post-mortem rectal cooling cases under strictly controlled conditions: a useful tool in death time estimation

The most common method used in determining the estimated time since death in the early post-mortem phase is back-calculation based on rectal temperature decrease. Cooling experiments are essential for model generation and validation. Post-mortem temperature models are necessary to perform back-calculations. Thus far, cooling experiments have not been performed under controlled environmental conditions. The present study provides data on 84 post-mortem cooling experiments under strictly controlled environmental conditions. For a period of 5 years, starting in 2003, deceased persons with a known time of death and known environmental conditions at the death scene were transferred to a climatic chamber for the process of body cooling. The environmental temperature was programmed to the death scene temperature and kept constant throughout the process of body cooling. Rectal and ambient temperatures were measured every minute. Relevant case-specific information was summarized in a FileMaker database. The database serves as a reference tool for the comparison of real cases in forensic routine and to check the plausibility of model-derived estimates.