When investigating murders, it is very important to establish how long ago the death of the victim occurred. Sometimes the success of the investigation depends on this, because with the exact establishment 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 examination, which will make it possible to find out when an unlawful act was committed. There are a number of signs that allow you to get an answer to this question. One of these signs are Larcher spots, which will be discussed in this article.
The science of determining the cause of death and the moment of its occurrence
What are Larcher spots? Photos of these spots are given in many forensic textbooks: on this basis, experts determine the time of death. However, before proceeding to the description of this post-mortem symptom, a few words should be said about what dying is and what kind of science studies this process. The field of knowledge dedicated to the mysterious phenomenon of the death of a living organism,called thanatology. The section that falls within the competence of forensic physicians is forensic thanatology. Thanatology provides answers to questions related to determining the factors that caused death, and also allows you to determine with a fairly high accuracy when a person died.
Post-mortem changes and their significance for determining the time of death
Death is not an instantaneous 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, blood is redistributed in the vessels under the influence of gravity, putrefactive processes occur due to the activity of bacteria. Of course, these processes gradually come to naught, however, knowing the sequence of changes that occur with the body allows you to fairly accurately determine the moment of death of the body.
The main stages of dying
Dying is a process that consists of four stages that successively replace one another:
- Predagonal state. The functions of the brain are disturbed, the person becomes inhibited, his skin turns pale, and the pressure drops. This state 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 ceasebe coordinated. Hypoxia increases, which leads to the death of brain cells. The agony can last up to 5-6 hours, during which time measures can still be taken to prevent the death of a person.
- Clinical death. The organism stops functioning and the person can be considered dead. However, metabolic processes are still taking place in individual tissues. 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 get the heart to 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. Larcher spots are a sign of death that appears only after the onset of biological death.
Signs of death
The main signs indicating that a person has died are the following:
- complete immobility;
- pronounced pallor of the skin, the main cause of which is circulatory arrest;
- lack of respiratory activity and heart contractions;
- disappearance of reflexes and reactions to stimuli.
The presence of all of the above signs allows us to state 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 personlooks dead. Doctors can erroneously declare death, and therefore the corpses of people who died in the hospital are sent to the morgue no earlier than two hours after the statement of death. Forensic doctors may also encounter cases of alleged death. Such a condition can be observed with electrical injuries, poisoning, etc. However, there are signs that absolutely indicate the onset of the death of the body. One of these signs is Larcher's spots.
Early changes in the corpse and reliable signs of death
There are signs that allow you to determine with absolute certainty that a person has died, and resuscitation is useless. These signs include phenomena that are irreversible and under no circumstances can occur in a living person:
- drying of the cornea of the eye (Larcher spots appear, which can be seen when the eyelids of the deceased are pushed apart);
- constriction of the pupils when squeezing the eyeballs (Beloglazov's symptom, otherwise called the cat's eye symptom);
- decrease in body temperature up to 20 degrees;
- the appearance of cadaveric spots;
- blood hypostasis spots: blue and purple spots appear on pale skin, which become invisible when pressed;
- the appearance of characteristic cadaveric changes, such as decay, mummification, etc.
As you understand, such changes indicate the onset of biological death and the absence of the need for resuscitationactivities.
It is important to note that changes occur sequentially, therefore, by examining the corpse of the murdered, forensic experts can determine at what point the death of a person occurred. For example, the formation of Larcher spots indicates that at least five hours have passed since the onset of death before the examination.
Corpse drying
Immediately after the metabolic processes stop, cadaverous 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. Larcher's spots indicate that the corpse is gradually beginning to lose moisture. The skin areas that were damaged during life, as well as the mucous membranes of the eyes, genitals, lips and tongue, are the first to undergo cadaveric drying. Larcher's spots become noticeable on the eyeballs, which make it possible 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 completely evaporates from the body. In this case, the mummification of the corpse occurs.
What are Larcher 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. At the same time, specific brownish spots appear on the sclera. They have a triangular shape, the vertices of the triangle are directed towards the outer and inner corners of the eye, and the base is turned towards the iris. The areas that have undergone a change look slightly wrinkled and stand out sharply against the background of a shiny cornea. These spots are Larcher's spots: the photo suggests that a few hours after death, the eyes begin to look cloudy.
When do spots appear?
It is not enough just to determine that Larcher's 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 the onset of death of a person. It has been established that the cornea begins to dry out two to three hours after death, this process becomes especially noticeable after about five hours.
There are special tables used by forensic doctors. These tables provide data on what kind of post-mortem changes occur after a certain time after the death of a person. Using the tables, experts can determine the approximate time of death.
Approximately 12 hours after death, the eyeballs become dirty yellow due to the fact that the cornea dries out completely. Naturally, in this case, Larcher's spots disappear. However, under certain conditions (for example, if the weather is quite dry and windy), signs of moisture evaporation 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 quickly enough. Therefore, Larcher's spots, when 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 bodywas indoors, then the spots will appear five hours after death, if outdoors, then after one hour.
Cat's eye symptom
Larcher's spots, which are described in this article, are not the only "eye" symptom that allows us to state death. There is also the so-called symptom of Beloglazov. This symptom can be observed approximately half an hour after the person has died.
After death, 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 both sides, the pupil will take an oval shape, resembling the pupil of a cat. If you squeeze the eyeball of a living person, the pupil will not change its rounded shape.
Meaning thanatology
Thanatology managed to accumulate a huge amount of data that allows you to accurately determine the moment of death of a person, as well as to establish the causes that caused 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 determining the identity of the criminal.
Thanatology is a science that is necessary not only for forensic pathologists and forensic scientists. Due to the fact that doctors were able to develop accurate methods for determining the moment of irreversible death and to study the processes of dying in detail, many people were returned tolife. This applies to patients who have experienced clinical death, infants born without signs of vital activity, etc. After all, before the fact of the final death of the organism is ascertained, it is possible to carry out resuscitation and save the patient.
Conclusion
Larcher's spots are a sign indicating the recent onset of a person's biological death. Forensic medicine attaches great importance to this symptom, because with its help it is possible to accurately determine the time of death. If the forensic physician recorded the presence of stains, then it can be said with full confidence that death occurred at least five hours before the examination of the corpse. If the cornea is completely clouded, one should rely on other post-mortem changes.
