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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
First of all, her body was not completely mummified.

From my own personal experience, the hands and ears are the first to mummify -- you almost always see mummification of ears and hands. If the person is barefoot (I didn't have many cases of that in my own experience) the feet also mummify rather quickly, toes first. Ears and hands have low mass and low moisture content to begin with, plus a high high surface-to-mass and surface-to-air ratio, so they mummify readily. Particularly if conditions are rather dry and the person not very fat, you will also commonly see mummification of skin on the facial area early on , particularly of the skin covering the forehead, cheekbones and neck.

I can't remember any case I saw in former Yugoslavia where the hands and ears were not at least somewhat mummified (excepting military personnel wearing helmets -- their ears didn't mummify so fast).

There is not so much air flow over the crotch area (think about it), and it also has a higher moisture and fat content, so it doesn't mummify very quickly. Internal organs are not prone to mummification, in my own humble experience. Neither is the brain.

Also, in females, there is easy access to mucous membranes in the crotch area, which is particularly attractive to flies (the first stage of blow fly maggots primarily feeds on mucous membranes) -- and anyone who knows anything about female anatomy knows there's a long trail of mucous membranes from the genital opening up to the cervix for the maggots to feed upon. Anyway, I'm sure these guys have much more experience with partially mummified bodies than I. It's fairly common for the face and extremities to mummify if the body is left in the open. (But NOT if the body is in an enclosed space, such as the RV storage compartment, as Dusek suggested. Mummification requires lots of air flow.)

Also, have a look at my post #973 and CAPPSMADNESS' post #991 on this thread.

394 posted on 08/16/2002 12:39:24 PM PDT by wonders
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To: wonders
Didn't someone suggest he kept her on the roof (lots of airflow) there. Hey what are those vultures doing on your roof?.....
406 posted on 08/16/2002 12:47:59 PM PDT by clearvision
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To: wonders
sounds like the hot version of frost bite, wonders. Especially in terms of progression.

Thanks for going over this info and adding your experience with the phenomena.
407 posted on 08/16/2002 12:48:00 PM PDT by pinz-n-needlez
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To: wonders
Exactly one of my points!
"Two forensic witnesses testified that there was none in this case: the ground was dry beneath the body. I think (but I'm not positive) that those two witnesses were the ME and Faulkner (the first forensic entomologist who testified). Both went to the site where the body was recovered."
Are you saying that it's not abnormal?
422 posted on 08/16/2002 1:04:21 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: wonders
SO you think it IS strange--and would you agree that mummification could be an explanation at all?
"I don't get why there was no "body silhouette" at all. Mighty strange. Unless, of course the body was moved after leakage of the fluids formed in the first stages of putrefaction. Or the body had been frozen soon after death (killing off the endogenous bacteria which account for much of the process of putrefaction, particularly in the abdominal area). Both possibilities seem really "out there" though. "
Whoops, I left this part off
424 posted on 08/16/2002 1:06:06 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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