I'm joined here today by Dr. Lee Levati. She is the deputy chief medical examiner for

the Wayne County Medical Examiner's office in Detroit, Michigan. She's also a clinical

associate professor of pathology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Levati has graciously

agreed to look at the autopsy report for him and Lee, the autopsy photos, and the testimony

by the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy. Now, before we start a couple of caveats,

first the autopsy photos are black and white, they're not color, and they're fairly low

resolution. And secondly, unfortunately, the state's file does not include any photos

of the body when it was still buried and before it was disinsured.

Okay, so those caveats in place, let's go ahead and jump into some of these medical findings

and let's start with the process known as liver mortis. And so Dr. Levati, can you please

tell me about the process that is known as liver mortis?

Yes. Liver mortis refers to the red-purple discoloration of the skin, the ECM bodies

after death. It is a physical process that occurs after death wherein the blood settles

within the dependent areas of the body-based gravity. Meaning, if you die on your back

and are left in that position, the blood will then fuddle into the back half of your body.

It's a process that becomes visible or evidence about two to four hours after death, and it

can take up to eight to twelve hours to become the most prominent or visible and to six.

Now, fixation happens when there is breakdown or hemolysis of the blood within the blood vessel

that occurs after death. And so if the body is moved after levity, it's fixed.

Levity will not shift and resettle into the new body position. So if the body that was

on its back was then flipped onto its stomach after fixation, the levity would remain on

the back half of the body. Now, this eight to twelve hours is merely just an estimate

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