Discussion A Random Question

[Cathy Ames]

If a person dies alone and is not found for some amount of time after that, do they estimate the date of death (for the death certificate, or whatever) or do they just use the date on which the body is found?

Does anyone know (vs. just making a random guess)?

I'm editing to add that I did try googling already, and I'm not finding anything clear-cut. Like, obviously if they CARE to they can estimate the time of death. But I am wondering whether or not the estimated time is what would go on the death certificate (and whatever all else). One thing I read said that it was the date that they found you. See... that seems weird.

 

[Life_and_Death]

They would do an autopsy and be able to take a really close guess of the date/time. I'm not 100% sure how accurate it is, but probably within hours.

 

[Smart No More]

Good question. I'm so painfully tempted to make a gues lol. It's probably something that varies from state to state, country to country. If you're looking for a specific answer for your location you may need to turn to a search engine unless you're comfortable disclosing your location. A searchengine search would probably be quick to provide an answer either way. I am curious to know now too. Like I say, I'm tempted to make a semi educated guess but can easily see how it could go one way or the other. The logic works in both directions.

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

From my vague understanding having grown up knowing a bunch of cops and being in basically the police equivalent of the army's cadets : They use an estimate time of death for ''this is vital to know in case it's a crime purposes''. They're really good at estimating depending on like, cause of death and the state of the body. Like, they won't know the exact minute of death, but they'll come up close enough.

 

[Cathy Ames]

I'm editing to add that I did try googling already, and I'm not finding anything clear-cut. Like, obviously if they CARE to they can estimate the time of death. But I am wondering whether or not the estimated time is what would go on the death certificate (and whatever all else). One thing I read said that it was the date that they found you. See... that seems weird.

The death certificate has the date PRONOUNCED dead. I guess that would be the date that they found the person?

 

[Smart No More]

Yeah, it's an interesting one. The way I imagine it is that they pronounce you dead on the date/time they find you and coroner would then discern a timeframe in which you're likely to have died. Which of those goes on a death certificate I don't know.

 

[Cathy Ames]

I have learned this. If you're in the US, the form has spaces for both the "DATE PRONOUNCED DEAD" and the "ACTUAL OR PRESUMED DATE OF DEATH." So I would guess the correct, "real" date would end up on the form if a person were to leave a note, have a verifiable (enough) timeline, and be decomposed approximately the correct amount for the amount of time that had passed. [That last one is a joke. Obviously, no matter how much of a fuck-up you were while alive, you WILL decompose at the correct rate.] However, all bets are off if the medical examiner is incompetent, doesn't give a crap, and/or came to work drunk that day.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/death11-03final-acc.pdf