Todeszeitpunkts

Todeszeitpunkt is a term used in forensic medicine to denote the moment when biological death occurs. In practice, it marks the moment after which irreversible loss of vital functions has occurred, and it serves as a key datum in investigations, legal proceedings, and civil matters. The concept is used in German-speaking regions as Todeszeitpunkt; Todeszeitpunkts appears in grammatical forms such as the genitive, but the standard noun form for the event itself is Todeszeitpunkt.

Estimating the Todeszeitpunkt relies on multiple lines of evidence rather than a single indicator. Common methods include changes in body temperature (algor mortis), lividity (livor mortis), and rigor mortis, all of which follow characteristic time courses and are influenced by environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, clothing, and body size. Algor mortis describes the cooling of the body toward ambient temperature and can provide a rough time frame, especially in the first hours after death. Livor mortis refers to settling of blood in dependent parts of the body and helps indicate whether the body has been moved. Rigor mortis involves stiffening of the muscles, typically beginning several hours after death and evolving over the first day. Additional indicators include ocular changes, decomposition processes, and postmortem changes in the abdomen or stomach, as well as entomological evidence such as insect colonization, which can narrow the interval since death in later stages.

Accuracy in estimating the Todeszeitpunkt varies and depends on the quality of scene information, the presence of medical interventions, and environmental conditions. Forensic estimates are typically expressed as time ranges rather than exact moments, reflecting inherent uncertainties.