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To: Lizarde
that her skin was covered with purple patches

I had a thought while reading that. I had read that the blotches come from blood pooling on the bottom (down) side of the body. What if she was passed out and someone wanted to be sure she didn't wake up and pushed her face down in the pillow, then turned her over before people got there.

24,733 posted on 03/09/2007 6:15:52 AM PST by gopheraj
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To: gopheraj; Lizarde

Once the heart stops beating, blood collects in the most dependent parts of the body (livor mortis), the body stiffens (rigor mortis), and the body begins to cool (algor mortis).

The blood begins to settle in the parts of the body that are the closest to the ground, usually the buttocks and back when a corpse is supine. The skin, normally pink-colored because of the oxygen-laden blood in the capillaries, becomes pale as the blood drains into the larger veins. Within minutes to hours after death, the skin is discolored by livor mortis, or what embalmers call "postmortem stain," the purple-red discoloration from blood accumulating in the lowermost (dependent) blood vessels. Immediately after death, the blood is "unfixed" and will move to other body parts if the body's position is changed. After a few hours, the pooled blood becomes "fixed" and will not move. Pressing on an area of discoloration can determine this; if it blanches (turns white) easily, then the blood remains unfixed. Livor mortis is usually most pronounced eight to twelve hours after death. The skin, no longer under muscular control, succumbs to gravity, forming new shapes and accentuating prominent bones still further. The body then begins to cool.

http://www.deathreference.com/Py-Se/Rigor-Mortis-and-Other-Postmortem-Changes.html


24,752 posted on 03/09/2007 6:52:43 AM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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