BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Researchers have found that months after a corpse has started decomposing they can give information that will not only advance science but also help investigators. This is the highlight of the findings of a recent scientific research published in the journal of Forensic Science International: Synergy. It is the outcome of a research carried out by forensic experts in Australia. Researchers at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Researchers, AFTER are convinced that corpses make some significant movements even as they decompose.
So how did they find that out? They set up cameras at a “human body farm”, at a location outside Sydney. There, according to them, they confirm that the arms made “significant” movement when the corpses were filmed at intervals of 30 minutes.
The researchers who watched the phenomenon over a period of 17 months said corpses can make movement for about one year.
Alyson Wilson, one of the researchers was quoted as saying, “Arms that started off down beside the body ended up out to the side of the body.” Xanthe Mallet, head of the research team said “I was amazed when I saw it, especially how much the arms were moving.”
He said this has shown that watching the movement of the dead body can help to determine how long it’s been dead. He is confident that the discovery will help law enforcement officials to crack naughty cases, just as it will help victims and their loved ones.
The initial objective of the experiment was to determine how the body of human being decompose after death. The researchers surely got that confirmed, they also got rewarded with the find on the movement of the otherwise lifeless bodies and how this can help the police in cracking cases where the criminals perhaps assumed that he/she has perfected a heinous crime.