Time of Death

True or false: Liver temperature can determine exact   time of death if taken within a few hours of death.

False.

The closer to the last time the deceased was know to be alive to the time that his or her liver temperature is taken the more accurate the estimate will be. However, medical examiners can narrow the time of death by the liver temperature of the deceased only to within a range of about an hour regardless of when the temperature is taken.  The longer the delay the wider the range becomes because more variable can creep into the estimate.

The most widely used rule of thumb is: 1.5 degrees of temperature loss per hour.

There are numerous variables, the most influential of which are the body temperature of the deceased before death and the individual rate of temperature loss after death. Although the average body temperature for a normal healthy adult is 98.6 degrees, that temperature can fluctuate up or down by as much as one degree.   If you don't know the precise body temperature of the deceased just prior to death you can be off in your estimate of time of death by more than and hour. You must  assume a body temperature of 98.6 before death and a uniform rate of temperature loss after death (which isn't always true) to make any time of death estimate at all.

In the case of the Bundy murders an estimated range between 9:45 and 10:45 would have implicated O.J. The delay in calling the cornier after the first detectives arrived on the scene at 2:10 therefore had no effect. The delay before them might have. Either way, the result could not have been definitive.  --Jasper