Why Clothing Belongs in a Body Temperature Record

Saukko and Knight describe clothing and coverings as factors that affect heat exchange after death. The same body temperature can therefore have different implications depending on the conditions around the body.

An examiner evaluating a reading needs the surrounding observations, including whether clothing was wet or dry and whether coverings were present. Those details help explain the assumptions behind a cooling estimate and whether later changes to the scene could affect the interpretation.

Saukko and Knight, Knight’s Forensic Pathology, 3rd ed. (2004), p. 81