Post-Mortem Repositioning of Human Bodies in Fires

John D. DeHaan*

One of the indicators forensic fire investigators try to use in the reconstruction of fatal fires is interpreting the position of a burned body and its limbs in a fire scene. Both scene investigators and forensic pathologists have attempted to reconstruct the final moments of the victim’s life by examining the remains – sometimes as the remains are documented at the scene, but often after recovery, removal, transport, and delivery to the morgue. These later processes can alter or even destroy badly burned remains to such a state that any interpretation is guesswork. Even more distressing is the lack of empirical knowledge about the effects of fire on a body during an actual fire. Because very few forensic personnel have ever watched a deceased body burn in a fire and with such limited empirical data, it is not surprising that much of the attempted reconstruction is guesswork and misinterpretation. The author has been part of the annual Forensic Fire Death Investigation Course (FFDIC) offered in San Luis Obispo, California since 2008. The field exercise of this unique course involves the preparation of 10 to 12 different fire scenes in which one or two unembalmed human cadavers are exposed to each fire. The events include structure (room and contents) fires – often to flashover and beyond. Others include road-side dumps and vehicle body disposal. Some fires are brief in duration – 10-20 minutes – some involve 6-8 hours of fire exposure. These classes have given the author and other instructors the unique opportunity to observe numerous bodies of unembalmed adults during the course of a wide variety of real-world ‘fatal’ fires. This paper will illustrate a sample of the effects of fires (structure, vehicle, and bonfire) on the position of bodies and how the positions of limbs, heads, and sometimes torsos can change during the course of fire exposure.