Development of Methods for Estimating Postmortem Internal and Body relocation based on Biomarkers of Human Decomposition Ecology

Microbial putrefaction of a corpse leaves signatures in bone; that, together with microbial biomarkers and characterization of grave soil ecology have a great potential to benefit the work of forensic anthropologists in interpreting postmortem history and evaluating samples for biomolecular research (e.g. DNA). Development of these new methods can assist the forensic investigation by clarifying the role of different types of microbes in bone diagenesis and how this knowledge can be applied to estimating PMI and body relocation. This will decrease processing time and case backlog. ca/ncf