How to calculate time of death using body temperature

The scene
Justin Bieber was found dead in his room of The Empire hotel, New York at 9:30 am on the
23rd of September. His body looks as though it has not been moved and it is believed that
he died sometime in last 24 hours. The time of death needs to be identified as there are
multiple suspect with motives that need to be ruled out.
How time of death is worked out
All mammals produce heat from metabolic reactions like respiration which create an
internal core body temperature of 37
o
C.
From the time of death the metabolic reactions slow down and eventually come to a stop
and heat is lost to the surroundings. Both these factors cause a decrease in body
emperature until it is the same as the surroundings in the processes of algor mortis.
The cooling of the body follows a sigmoid curve and it assumes that the body temperature is
37 C but if they have hypothermia or a fever the body temperature may be elevated or
depressed.
Human bodies cool at a rate of around 1.5
o
C to 2.0
o
C per hour for the first 12 hours then
1
o
C per hour after 12 hours, so temperature can be used to work out time of death. On
average it is only relevant for 24 hours and only applies for cold or temperature locations
not tropical.
Factors that affect the rate of cooling are: air temperature, clothing, body weight, body
position and humidity. This is because clothing and fat act as an insulator and the rate of
decreasing temperature is reduced also the young and elderly lose heat quicker than adults.
Also if in water it will cool more rapidly as water is a better conductor than air.
In the case of this context the body temperature was 25
o
C and the surroundings were 18
o
C.
Using a cooling curve and the assumption that he lost between 1.5
o
C - 2
o
C an hour it can be
estimated that he died somewhere between 1:30 and 3:30am.
Conclusion
By using the estimated time of death investigators were then able to look at the suspects
alibis and narrow the number of suspects down from 24 to 3 focusing the investigation
resources leading to a quicker identification of the murder.