5. You are investigating an arson scene and you find a corpse in the rubble, but you suspect that the victim did not die as a result of the fire. Instead, you suspect that the victim was murdered earlier, and that the blaze was started to cover up the murder. How would you go about determining whether the victim died before the fire

Question

Carla

Chemistry

6 March, 11:53

5. You are investigating an arson scene and you find a corpse in the rubble, but you suspect that the victim did not die as a result of the fire. Instead, you suspect that the victim was murdered earlier, and that the blaze was started to cover up the murder. How would you go about determining whether the victim died before the fire

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Answers (1)

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Steven Glass · Answer 1

See the answer below.

Explanation:

Fire has three major components:

Heat Smoke Gases (in form of CO, CO2 etc)

If the victim had died as a result of the fire, he/he would have inhaled smoke and hot gases from the fire. These components would have resulted in traces of burns and soot deposition in the trachea and lungs as well as traces of CO in the blood of the victim.

If the analysis of the victim's corpse does not reflect some of the results above, it can be effectively concluded that the victim has been dead before the fire.

The single most important indicator of death by the fire would be the presence of CO in the blood of the victim's corpse. All others might be to a less significant degrees.