The decomposition of carrion in water environments: Implications for search and recovery techniques and PMI estimates

Drowning is the third leading cause of death by “unintentional injury” worldwide, accounting for approximately 400,000 fatalities annually (World Health Organisation, 2004). In the UK alone more than 300 deceased individuals are recovered from water each year (National Water safety Forum, 2016), their manner of death often being ruled as accidental, suicide or homicide. However, for each individual recovered there is another who remains missing, with research showing that only 45% of bodies deposited in water are recovered within 12 months (Kringsholme et al., 2001).
Despite the increasing number of water related deaths being reported each year, there is a lack of controlled research investigating the environmental variables that impact on the search, recovery and analysis of human remains submerged in aquatic environments. The majority of what is already known is based on published case studies, and whilst there is something that can be learnt from each of these, they are limited in their applicability to future casework and training. This is in part due to the large number of variables related to both the body and the environment, that can influence not just the movement and decomposition of the cadavers (Heaton et al., 2010), but also the effectiveness of the techniques used to locate them (Healy et al., 2015: Ruffell et al., 2017). Research has shown that bodies recovered from UK waterways are similar in regards to their pattern of decay and movement within the watercourse, but there are significant variations observed, even in the same stretch of river (Heaton et al. 2010). Since the extent of decomposition impacts on the size of the target and its movement in the water column (Bassett and Manhein), the fields of forensic geoscience and forensic anthropology are directly linked. Collaborative research between the two fields is essential for furthering our knowledge in this subject.
The aim of the research is to improve the success rates of water searches and increase accuracy for postmortem interval (PMI) estimates. This will be achieved by conducting a series of controlled experiments that cover the fields of forensic anthropology and geoscience, which will allow us to identify the variables that significantly influence the postmortem movement and decomposition of cadavers in water. The results of the study can then be applied to existing casework, allowing us to predict the size of the target (stage of decomposition) and its position/movement in the water, identify the tools most suited to the scene, reduce search times, and increase success rates at recovering individuals.

Studentship available from January 2019. Informal enquiries about the project should be made to the Project Lead (Dr Vivienne Heaton)
and should include a CV.

Please quote FNS GS 2018-15 on your application.