When investigating murders, it is very important to establish how long the death of the victim has come. Sometimes the success of the investigation depends on this, because with the exact determination of the moment of death, it is possible to determine who could have committed the crime and who has an irrefutable alibi. Therefore, when solving crimes against human life, there is often a need for a forensic medical study that will allow you to find out when the wrongful act was committed. There are a number of signs that provide an answer to this question. One of these signs is Larsche spots, which will be discussed in this article.
The science of determining the cause of death and the moment it occurs
What are Larsche spots? Photos of these spots are given in many forensics textbooks: on this basis, experts determine the time of death. However, before proceeding with the description of this posthumous symptom, a few words should be said about what dying is and what science is studying this process. The field of knowledge devoted to the mysterious phenomenon of the death of a living organism is called thanatology. The section that falls within the competence of forensic doctors is forensic thanatology. Thanatology provides answers to questions related to the determination of the factors that caused death, and also allows you to determine with fairly high accuracy when a person died.
Post-mortem changes and their significance for determining the time of death
Death is not an instant process: even some time after the death of an organism, certain changes occur in its tissues. This is due to the fact that after the onset of biological death, some tissues continue to function. In addition, under the influence of environmental conditions, the corpse gradually changes: moisture evaporates from the tissues, under the influence of gravity blood is redistributed in the vessels, putrefactive processes occur due to the activity of bacteria. Of course, these processes gradually come to naught, however, knowledge of the sequence of changes that occur with the body makes it possible to fairly accurately establish the moment the body dies.
The main stages of dying
Dying is a process that consists of four stages that successively replace one another:
- Pre-driving condition. Brain functions are impaired, a person becomes inhibited, his skin turns pale, and pressure drops. This condition can last up to several hours.
- Agony. The main organ systems continue to work: a person breathes, his heart beats. However, the functions of the organs cease to be coordinated. Hypoxia is increasing, which leads to the death of brain cells. The agony can last up to 5-6 hours, at which time measures can be taken to prevent the death of a person.
- Clinical death. The body ceases to function, and a person can be considered dead. However, in some tissues, metabolic processes still occur. At the stage of clinical death, a person can be brought back to life. As a rule, this period lasts up to eight minutes: after this time, even if you manage to make the heart beat, the functions of the cerebral cortex will be impaired.
- Biological death. Irreversible processes are taking place, as a result of which any attempts to bring a person back to life will be futile. Lärsche spots are a sign of death that appears only after the onset of biological death.
Signs of death
The main signs that a person has died are the following:
- complete immobility;
- pronounced pallor of the skin, the main reason for which is circulatory arrest;
- lack of respiratory activity and contractions of the heart;
- the disappearance of reflexes and reactions to stimuli.
The presence of all the above signs allows us to ascertain the death of a person, although in some conditions more detailed studies are required. For example, in medicine there is the concept of imaginary death: in this case, all life processes are weakened and slowed down to such an extent that a person looks dead. Doctors may erroneously state death, in connection with which the corpses of people who died in the hospital are sent to the morgue no earlier than two hours after the death is ascertained. Forensic doctors may also experience cases of alleged death. This condition can be observed with electrical injuries, poisoning, etc. However, there are signs that absolutely accurately indicate the onset of death of the body. Larsche spots are one of these signs.
Early corpse changes and reliable signs of death
There are signs that make it possible to determine with absolute accuracy that a person has died, and resuscitation measures are useless. These signs include phenomena that are irreversible and under no circumstances can arise in a living person:
- drying of the cornea of ​​the eye (Larshe spots appear, which can be seen when the eyelids of the deceased are parted);
- narrowing of the pupils when squeezing the eyeballs (a symptom of Beloglazov, otherwise called a symptom of a cat's eye);
- lowering body temperature to 20 degrees;
- the appearance of cadaveric spots;
- spots of blood hypostasis: blue and purple spots appear on pale skin that become invisible when pressed;
- the appearance of characteristic cadaveric changes, such as rot, mummification, etc.
As you understand, such changes indicate the onset of biological death and the absence of the need for resuscitation.
It is important to note that the changes occur sequentially, therefore, examining the corpse of the murdered, forensic experts can establish at what point the death of a person came. For example, the formation of Lärsche spots indicates that at least five hours have passed since the onset of death to the inspection.
Cadaveric drying
Immediately after the metabolic processes stop, cadaveric drying begins. Especially quickly, the liquid evaporates from open areas of the body, which leads to a change in the color of tissues, as well as to their compaction. Lärcher stains indicate that the corpse is gradually starting to lose moisture. The first parts of the skin that were damaged during life, as well as the mucous membranes of the eyes, genitals, lips and tongue, are exposed to cadaveric drying. On the eyeballs, Larshe spots become noticeable, which allow us to ascertain the death of the body, the lips become dense, and the skin on the genitals begins to resemble parchment to the touch. The drying process can last until the moisture has completely evaporated from the body. In this case, the mummification of the corpse.
What are Larsche spots?
If immediately after death the eyes of the deceased are not covered for centuries, moisture begins to evaporate from the surface of the cornea, because it ceases to be wetted by tear fluid. In this case, specific spots having a brownish color appear on the sclera. They have a triangular shape, the vertices of the triangle are directed to the outer and inner corners of the eye, and the base is turned to the iris. The areas that underwent a change look slightly wrinkled and stand out sharply against the background of a shiny cornea. These spots are Larsche spots: the photos indicate that a few hours after the death of the eye begins to look cloudy.
When do spots appear?
It is not enough to simply determine that Lärcher spots appeared on the eyes of the deceased. When these spots form is the main question. After all, it is the answer to it that allows you to determine the moment of death of a person. It was established that the cornea begins to dry after two to three hours after death, especially well this process becomes noticeable after about five hours.
There are special tables used by forensic doctors. These tables provide data on exactly what posthumous changes occur after a certain time after the death of a person. Using the tables, experts can set the estimated time of death.
About 12 hours after death, the eyeballs become dirty yellow due to the fact that the cornea dries out completely. Naturally, the Larsche spots disappear. However, under certain conditions (for example, if the weather is sufficiently dry and windy), signs of evaporation of moisture from the cornea become noticeable after an hour and a half. This is due to the fact that in such situations, the mucous membranes dry out quite quickly. Therefore, Larsche spots in assessing post-mortem changes are a symptom that should be considered in conjunction with the conditions in which the body of the deceased was. Otherwise, the probability of erroneous determination of the moment of death is high. If the body was indoors, then spots will appear five hours after death, if on the street - then after one hour.
Cat eye symptom
Larsche spots, the description of which can be found in this article, are not the only "eye" symptom that allows us to state death. There is still the so-called symptom of Beloglazov. This symptom can be observed approximately half an hour after the person died.
After death, the tissues lose their elasticity due to rigor mortis. In addition, after the brain dies, the muscle that innervates the pupil ceases to function, and pressure drops sharply in the eyeballs. Therefore, if you squeeze the eye of the deceased from two sides, the pupil will take an oval shape, resembling a pupil of a cat. If you squeeze the eyeball of a living person, the pupil will not change its rounded shape.
The value of thanatology
Tanatology managed to accumulate a huge amount of data that allows you to accurately determine the time of death of a person, as well as establish the causes of death. This is very important in criminal practice. Indeed, thanks to the research of forensic experts, it is possible to obtain information that is of great importance for ascertaining the identity of the criminal.
Tanatology is a science that is necessary not only for forensic pathologists and forensic scientists. Due to the fact that doctors managed to develop accurate methods for determining the moment of the onset of irreversible death and to study in detail the processes of dying, many people were returned to life. This applies to patients who survived clinical death, infants born without signs of vital activity, etc. After all, until the fact of the final death of the body is ascertained, it is possible to carry out resuscitation measures and save the patient.
Conclusion
A sign indicating the recent onset of human biological death are Larsche spots. Forensic medicine attaches great importance to this symptom, because with its help you can quite accurately determine the time of death. If the forensic doctor recorded the presence of spots, then we can confidently say that death occurred at least five hours before the inspection of the corpse. If the cornea is completely cloudy, you should rely on other posthumous changes.