The Forensic Necrobiome
February 7, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
Establishing a time of death is crucial in murder investigations. But that can be particularly difficult if a cadaver has been hidden for weeks or months. Forensic scientists at the City University of New York, however, have developed a new assay for post mortem intervals. The physical evidence is the necrobiome—in this case, bacteria samples collected from ear and nasal canals of 21 cadavers. Researchers studied how the necrobiome species changed over time, and from that were able to develop a statistical model that predicted time of death to within two days (under summer conditions). MORE