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. 2025 Jun 11:11:100616.
doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2025.100616. eCollection 2025 Dec.

Identifying the transition from ante-mortem to post-mortem odor in cadavers in an outdoor environment

Darshil Patel  1   2 , Wesley S Burr  3 , Benoit Daoust  1 , Shari Forbes  1   2
Affiliations

Identifying the transition from ante-mortem to post-mortem odor in cadavers in an outdoor environment

Darshil Patel et al. Forensic Sci Int Synerg. .

Abstract

This study investigates the transition from ante-mortem to post-mortem odor in human remains during the early post-mortem period in an outdoor environment. Three cadavers (donors) were placed at an outdoor human decomposition facility, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were collected and analyzed using thermal desorption coupled with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TD-GC × GC-TOFMS). The key findings revealed that nitrogen-containing compounds were predominant in early post-mortem VOC profiles, driven by enzymatic and bacterial activity. Esters, alcohols, and halogenated compounds were also identified, with esters linked to microbial transformation and alcohols possibly formed by lipid peroxidation. Ante-mortem VOCs were persistent across samples, influenced by skin microbiota and environmental factors like UV radiation, complicating the detection of decomposition odor. Post-mortem VOCs became more prominent after ADD 73.4(experimental day 3), signaling the transition to the bloat stage of decomposition. Variations in sample collection methods and external factors such as temperature were found to affect VOC abundances. This study provides critical insights into odor transition and has implications for the use of search and rescue (SAR) and human remains detection (HRD) dogs. Further research is needed to standardize methods and assess odor transitions across diverse environments and seasons.

Keywords: Cadavers; Decomposition odor; Forensic taphonomy; GC×GC; Trans-mortem; Volatile organic compounds.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual diagram illustrating the transition of ante-mortem odor to post-mortem odor during the early post-mortem period and the progression of post-mortem odor during decomposition stages after death [6].
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of VOCs identified by chemical class (high to low) at the REST facility from combined data for donors H7, H8 and H9
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Demonstrating the normalized peak area of the literature reported ante-mortem, trans-mortem and post-mortem VOCs detected in donor H7 samples collected at the morgue ADD 4 (H7 M) and REST facility ADD 14.65 to ADD 120.6 (H7 ED 0 to H7 ED 5)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Demonstrating the normalized peak area of the literature reported ante-mortem, trans-mortem and post-mortem VOCs detected in donor H8 samples collected at the morgue ADD 4 (H8 M) and REST facility ADD 17.9 to 123.6 (H8 ED 0 to H8 ED 5)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Demonstrating the normalized peak area of the literature reported ante-mortem, trans-mortem and post-mortem VOCs detected in donor H9's samples collected at the morgue ADD 4 (H9 M) and REST facility ADD 16.9 to 118.3 (H9 ED 0 to H9 ED 5)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Normalized peak areas of the literature reported ante-mortem, trans-mortem and post-mortem VOCs detected in donor H7, H8 and H9 samples collected at the morgue and REST facility
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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