THE PROCESS OF DECOMPOSITION

"The thing is, there are lots of studies that supported the claim that pitting on teeth was highly associated with chronic respiratory disease. Something that one could normally get from being raised with diets that are short of protein but long on other insubstantial food substitutes. The lack of protein in their diets would then explained why our victims are of small stature even as they hit their teens."

It was only after hearing the other party's elaborate explanation did Mikael finally understood where Santina was pointing him at and it was also during times like that, that he could not help but feel amazed by how Santina was always able to connect the dots and make sense of everything that she saw, regardless of how small the detail was and how trivial it may seem to others.

But knowing well enough that the other party was a rare genius, through and through, he was no longer surprised.

Mikael thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans instead as he thought deep to himself.

"And what about the time of death??? Do you happen to have one already?"

"When Anton found the victim two days ago, the body was already a mass of maggots. The weather has been both humid and wet lately so I would not put it at more than three days. Four at most, but that is only a slim chance."

Santina replied with all honesty.

Truth be told, there was truly no foolproof way to determine the time of a person's death.

Pathologists at most could only make estimates that were based on a number of factors.

Decomposition begins several minutes after death, with a process called autolysis, or self-digestion.

Soon after the heart stopped beating, cells would become deprived of oxygen. As a result, cells would increase their acidity as the toxic by-products of chemical reactions would begin to accumulate inside them.

Enzymes would then start digesting cell membranes and then it would leak out as the cells broke down.

This process usually began in the liver, since this was the organ that was enriched with enzymes, then followed by the brain, which has the highest water content and eventually, though all other tissues and organs.

Damaged blood cells would spill out of the broken vessels and with the aid of gravity, it would settle in the capillaries and small veins, causing the discoloration of the skin.

Body temperature would also begin to drop until it has acclimatized to its surroundings.

Soon, the rigor mortis or stiffness of death would set in and it would take around the first one to four hours of death for the contraction to make it's way to the eyelids, jaw, and neck muscles.

Larger muscles, on the other hand, like those of the legs, arms, and torso would have to take four to six hours before it would turn rigid.

Around twelve hours after death, the body would feel cold, and within 24 hours, depending on body fat and external temperatures, it would soon lose all internal heat in a process called algor mortis.

The muscle tissue would begin to lose its stiffness after about thirty-six hours, and within about seventy-two hours of dying, the body's rigor mortis would subside and the muscle would relax again.

By then, the gut microbiome or the bacteria that resided at the junction between the small and large intestines would begin to digest the intestines as well as the surrounding tissues, from the inside out.

This was the reason why humans intestines used to putrefy first.

These same intestinal microbes would then spread throughout the rest of the body and would start invading the capillaries of the digestive system and lymph nodes, spreading first to the liver and then in the spleen, then into the heart and brain.

Enzymes in the pancreas, on the other hand, would cause the organ to digest itself.

The body would soon take on a gruesome appearance and smell because the decomposing tissue would emit a green substance, as well as gasses such as methane and hydrogen sulfide.

Also, the lungs would expel fluid through the mouth and nose and blisters that were filled with fluids of decomposition would then follow afterward.

Changes in the appearance of the eyes were also taken into consideration.

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