forensics question

[snap5563]

I am not sure this is the proper thread to post this but I have a forensics question to pose to anyone interested. Is there a thread just for forensic study or is it ok to my question here?

 

Any help greatly appreciated

snap

 

Any way here is the question....There are quite a few of us that have been following the Kathleen Savio/ Stacey Peterson case and we have debated oursleves into a frenzy over a particular forensic question and was hoping that somone could help us out.

 

We all have been trying to debate a particular issue regarding the Kathleen Savio case. Am not sure any of you have heard about it but I can fill you in on the details if need be. But our question is... her dead body was found in a DRY bathtub, her death was ruled drowning, yet, the only part of her body to have any skin wrinkling (from water), was one hand...How does one drown in a dry bathtub and have skin wrinkling on only one hand? How long does skin wrinkling stay on a dead body when exposed to air? How long does it take for skin wrinkling to appear/dissappear? Is there a way to tell if the person was alive or dead at the time of skin wrinkling ( does the skin wrinkle different on a live person as apposed to a dead body)? Because if post mortum skin wrinkling is different, it would be very telling and help the our therory that she was, drowned by him holding her face in the toilet water until she drowned) then placed her dead body into the tub to make it look like an accident. Any clues of information any of you have, that could help with our debate, would be greatly appreciated.

[Kyrisch]

Skin wrinkling is caused by oils on the skin that make it waterproof slowly being washed off by immersion in water until there is so little, the skin is no longer waterproof and the cells absorb the water, thereby swelling and convoluting the skin.

 

I'm pretty sure the wrinkling would disappear at relatively the same rate on a dead body as a live body, since that is just osmosis which can occur even in dead cells (indeed, the outermost layer of skin is dead cells). The formation, too, should be at a relatively similar rate because it only has to do with the washing away of the sebum (oil) and has very little to do with biological processes.

[snap5563]

Thank you for the information. Do you know how many minutes/hours it takes for the wrinkling to go away, wouldn't that help determine the time of death?

thank you for your input

[iNow]

It would depend on how extensive the skin wrinkling was. If it was very very wrinkled, then it would take longer to return to a normal state. If it was only a little wrinkled, it could clearly return to it's normal state more quickly. I'm sure there are a few other variables for which you'd need to account, like each different persons baseline oil content and skin flexibility and things like that.

 

This is, of course, assuming that it does, in fact, return to it's normal state. I don't know the answer to that, myself.

[sim]

hey snap

are u a forensic scientist because i am hoping to do that as a career and i don't know anyone who is one.

[jdurg]

I got my degree in forensic chemistry but didn't wind up in the field for a career. (Not enough well paying jobs). Going down that road for a degree, however, is a good idea because it forces you to think logically and get solid proof to solve a problem. Gives you a large number of careers you can get into. (Got me into the pharmaceutical development career).

[Dr. Cox M.D.]

There is a particular way of death called dry drowning. This is where the lungs are unable to extract oxygen from air for a variety of reasons. They key part of this is that the lungs don't need to make contact with water to drown the person explaining why the person didn't show any signs of water on their tissue.