Criminal justiceCase studyForensic psychology

Estimating time of death: the Felix Smith case

As lead crime scene investigator, discuss every method available for estimating Felix Smith's time of death from the scene evidence, say which evidence carried your estimate, judge whether the neighbour's 11:00 p.m. account holds, decide whether the body was moved, and conclude accident or murder.

Aug 13, 2026Updated Aug 16, 2026

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 13, 2026

Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

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Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

The three clocks the scene gives you

The scene has been constructed so that several independent estimators of time since death are available, and the strength of the answer comes from using them together rather than picking one. Body temperature is the first: 32.6°C at 7:00 a.m. in a 67 kg adult is a fall of roughly four and a half degrees from normal, and the conventional cooling approximation of about one degree Celsius per hour after an initial plateau puts death several hours before the body was found. Corneal clouding is the second: eyes left open become cloudy within a few hours. Lividity is the third and it is the most informative here, because it fixes about eight to twelve hours after death. Gastric contents give a fourth: Chinese food still in the stomach with none having passed into the small intestine indicates death within roughly two hours of the meal, and the delivery receipt timestamps that meal at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Set those against the witness account and the tension is the point of the exercise. Christy Moore says the victim was alive when she left at 11:00 p.m., but the gastric evidence places death close to the evening meal, several hours earlier. Say so, and say which evidence you are weighing more heavily and why — gastric emptying is variable between individuals, while lividity and temperature have their own error bands, so the argument is about converging ranges rather than a single number. The question about whether the body was moved is answered by the lividity distribution: purple discoloration on the chest and thighs means blood settled with the front of the body downward, yet he was found lying face up at the foot of the steps. Those two facts cannot both be true of a body that stayed where it fell. Fixed lividity does not migrate, so he lay face down for hours and was then turned.

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

01
Apply algor mortis, livor mortis, corneal changes and gastric contents as timing indicators.
02
Combine independent estimators into a converging time-of-death range.
03
Evaluate a witness statement against physical evidence.
04
Interpret lividity distribution as evidence of body position after death.
05
Draw a manner-of-death conclusion from the physical evidence available.

Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

As the lead crime scene investigator, you are requested to assist the medical examiner with estimating the time of death of a deceased White male. The victim’s home was a two story single family dwelling with a back deck spanning the length of the house located at 2525 Frost Avenue. The body of Felix Smith was found at approximately 6:00 a.m. on Friday, June 12, 2012 by Christy Moore, a neighbor of the victim. She claimed she came over to ask the victim to assist her with her car that would not start. She entered through the unlocked front door when the victim did not answer the door bell. Moore said that she had eaten Chinese food and watched Dexter with the victim the night before, and the victim was still alive when Moore left the house at 11:00 p.m. The victim was lying face up at the bottom of the back deck steps. He appears to have suffered injuries to the back of the head and neck. The body temperature of the victim at 7:00 a.m. was approximately 32.6°C. His eyes were open and covered with a cloudy film. The victim had purple discoloration on his chest and thighs consistent with lividity. Two empty boxes of Chinese food were found on the dining room table from King Wok along with a receipt saying that it was sent out for delivery Thursday, June 11, at 6:00 p.m. There was no evidence of forced entry, but the front door to the home was left unlocked. The male victim is approximately 177 cm tall and weighs 67 kg. The cause of death appears to be blunt force trauma to the back of the skull and a broken neck. Both of these injuries are consistent with a fall down stairs. There was Chinese food located in the victim’s stomach, but none had entered the small intestine. Questions Discuss all methods possible to determine time of death based on the information provided. What evidence assisted you with the time of death? Do you believe Ms. Moore’s account that the victim was alive at 11:00 p.m.? Was the body moved after death? Do you think that the victim’s death was an accident or a murder?

Turn the brief into deliverables

01
A discussion of all methods available for determining time of death here.
02
A statement of which evidence most supported your estimate.
03
A judgement on Ms. Moore's claim that the victim was alive at 11:00 p.m.
04
A determination of whether the body was moved after death.
05
A conclusion on whether the death was an accident or a murder.

Methods, evidence, witness, position, conclusion

The methods available

Algor mortis, livor mortis, rigor, corneal clouding and gastric emptying as separate clocks.

Applying them to this scene

32.6°C at 7:00 a.m., cloudy corneas, fixed lividity, undigested food and the 6:00 p.m. receipt.

The converging estimate

A time-of-death range built where the separate indicators overlap.

Testing the witness

Ms. Moore's 11:00 p.m. claim set against the gastric and lividity evidence.

Was the body moved

Anterior lividity against a supine found position, and what fixed lividity implies.

Accident or murder

The conclusion the moved body and the contradicted account together support.

Postmortem changes and forensic timing

Recommended databases

StatPearls via NCBI Bookshelf
National Institute of Justice
MedlinePlus
Forensic science course text
PubMed

Search sequence

1.
Read on postmortem changes and the sequence in which they appear.
2.
Check the standard cooling approximation and the factors that alter it.
3.
Read when livor mortis becomes fixed and what that means for later movement.
4.
Read typical gastric emptying times and the variability around them.
5.
Note how crime scene reconstruction combines independent indicators into a range.

Reference shortlist

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

01
Postmortem Changes
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
The sequence and timing of algor, livor and rigor mortis, which is the core of the estimate.
02
Evaluation of Postmortem Changes
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
How postmortem findings are evaluated at scene, including position-dependent lividity.
03
Forensic Autopsy
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
How manner of death is distinguished from cause of death, which is the final question.
04
Gastric Emptying Scan
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Normal gastric transit times and their variability, which is what makes the undigested meal a timing indicator.

Review before submission

Common mistakes

Using body temperature alone and reporting a single hour rather than a range.
Ignoring the gastric contents, which are the sharpest indicator in this scene.
Missing that lividity on the chest contradicts a body found face up.
Accepting the witness account without testing it against the physical timeline.
Treating fixed lividity as something that would redistribute after the body was turned.
Concluding murder from the injuries alone when they are consistent with a fall.

Submission checklist

Every available timing method in the scene is discussed.
The estimate is expressed as a range with the reasoning behind it.
The witness account is explicitly evaluated against the evidence.
The lividity distribution is compared with the found position.
A clear accident-or-murder conclusion is reached and defended.
The paper is proofread and formatted as the instructions require.

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