The correlation between the Aquatic Decomposition Score (ADS) and the post-mortem submersion interval measured in Accumulated Degree Days (ADD) in bodies recovered from fresh water

Abstract

The Aquatic Decomposition Score (ADS) made by van Daalen et al., was developed to approximate the Post-Mortem Submersion Interval (PMSI) in bodies recovered in salt water. Since the decomposition process in salt water differs from the process in fresh water due to salinity, the temperature, and the depth of the water, we wanted to investigate whether there is a correlation between the ADS and the PMSI and if the ADS can be used to make an estimation of the PMSI in bodies recovered from fresh water. For the latter, the PMSI was measured using Accumulated Degree Days (ADD). In our study we included seventy-six human remains found outdoors in fresh water. Their decomposition was measured using the ADS. A strong correlation was found between the ADS and the PMSI. Also, it was found that the ADS can significantly estimate the ADD. Despite the more varied circumstances under which bodies in fresh water are found when compared to those found in salt water, the ADS can be used to measure the decomposition and accurately estimate the ADD, and thus the PMSI. More research is needed to validate our method and make a prediction model with smaller confidence intervals.

Outdoor human decomposition in Sweden: A retrospective quantitative study of forensic‐taphonomic changes and postmortem interval in terrestrial and aquatic settings

“…The model fit for surface cases is higher in this study than in studies conducted in Swedish indoor settings (r 2 = 0.54) [40,42], as well as in an outdoor study in the Netherlands (r 2 = 0.56) [73],…”

Aquatic Decomposition of Mammalian Corpses: A Forensic Proteomic Approach

“…Other methods evaluated in the past include the assessment of adipocere formation 19,20 , and the evaluation of marine bacteria, insect, and algal successions 13,21,22 . The parameters studied were found to be strongly affected by the temperature 23,24 and type of water 14 , and by seasonality 25 .…”

“…In fact, a large number of environmental variables, such as salinity, tides and water depth, temperature, and bacterial and chemical composition of the water [11][12][13] can complicate investigations and lead to erroneous estimations. One of the most classical approaches to the estimation of the PMSI involved the use of the aquatic decomposition score (ADS) 11,14,15 , which measures the degree of decomposition of several areas of the body (face and neck, body and limbs) of recovered remains found in water. The ADS method has been used to develop models to predict the PMSI of bodies recovered in salt 15 and in fresh water 16 , however several limits on the use of this approach have been raised so far 17 .…”

Estimating the Impact of Laminar Flow on the Pattern and Rate of Decomposition in Aquatic Environments—Is There a Better Way of Modeling Decomposition?

“…In recent years, there has been an increasing number of experimental studies in aquatic environments, with most of the focus on determining the effect of various environmental variables on decomposition (3,12‐18). However, one variable that has received little attention is the effect of water flow.…”

“…Again, three regions of the body are scored separately and added together to create the TADS. This was adapted to freshwater canal systems (with flow) by Reijnen et al (18) and utilizes ADD to account for temperature differences. These methods assume a continuous linear or loglinear relationship between TADS and PMSI/ADD.…”