Presenter(s): Cheyenne Collins − Anthropology
Faculty Mentor(s): Jeanne McLaughlin
Poster 132
Research Area: Social Science
Funding: Extraordinary Expense Thesis Research Grant from the Robert D. Clark Honors College
Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program
Determining time since death (post-mortem interval or PMI) is an essential part of medico-legal death investigations. PMI can give investigators important information about time of death and may help answer questions about the events leading up to death. The purpose of this study is to collect decompositional data from an understudied region (Oregon), and compare these data to better studied regions such as Tennessee, in order to characterize the effects of regional variation on decomposition and taphonomy. Six pig heads will be exposed to the natural environment in the Willamette Valley of Oregon for sixty days. Three of these pig heads will undergo sharp force trauma infliction (SFT) in order to compare rate of decay with remains that have a singular SFT wound. Stage of decomposition, temperature, precipitation, and preliminary entomological data will be collected throughout the sixty-day observation period. These data will be used to calculate Accumulated Degree Days (ADD); evaluate variation between similar studies involving different North American regions; compare and contrast similar studies within the Willamette Valley of Oregon; and analyze the effects of sharp force trauma (SFT) on decomposition rates and insect activity.