Question

A body was found with lividity appearing all along the right side from head to toe and on the bottoms of the feet, the buttocks, and the lower legs. When the skin was pressed in the areas of lividity, the redness disappeared. What information can be derived from this body based on the lividity evidence

Answer 1

When a lifeless body's blood supply stop flowing because the heart stopped pumping blood then lividity is said to have started in the dead body. Lividity occurs when the skin starts developing a colour different from the original. Lividity starts mostly when the body becomes lifeless after two hours. Permanent lividity then occurs eight hours after the body becomes lifeless.

In this case, since the red skin, when pressed disappears after a while, it can be deduced that it's not a case of permanent lividity yet, which means the body has been lifeless for more than 2 hours but less than 8 hours.

Also, since the lividity appears on the right side of the body it means that the body became lifeless while it laid in that position.