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What Are the Two Major Stages of Body Decay?

The body goes through several stages as it decays. Death begins when the heart stops beating and the cells no longer receive oxygen. Brain cells begin to die when the cells are deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes, usually, though muscle cells can continue for a few hours more. It takes about 12 hours for the body to feel cool and 20 hours for the body to cool down to its core.

  1. Rigor Mortis

    • After three to four hours after death, rigor mortis, or the rigidity of the body, begins. Rigor mortis happens because of the changes to the muscles when their cells stop receiving oxygen. During life, calcium tends to diffuse in and out of living muscle cells, helping with normal contraction and relaxation. After death, this process no longer happens and the cells can't pump calcium out, and so the calcium concentration rises and forces the muscles to remain contracted. This stiffening will continue till the muscle proteins start to decompose.

    The End of Rigor Mortis

    • Rigor mortis begins with the small muscles around the eyelids, face, lower jaw and neck and then proceeds to the muscles of the rest of the body. After about 30 hours the rigor mortis will begin to disappear by the same route, small muscles first, then large muscle groups. If the person has died violently the process of rigor mortis will be sped up because the source of energy required for muscle contraction has already been used up.

    Decomposition: Accumulation of Gases

    • By the time rigor mortis ends, the body will have cooled to the temperature of the environment. The skin of the head and neck will discolor and the discoloration will spread to the chest, thighs and the rest of the body. The facial features will become unrecognizable and the body begins to smell of rotting meat. After three days gas begins to accumulate as bacteria the body can no longer fight off begin to dissolve the tissues. The gas forms blisters 2 to 3 inches in diameter on the skin. The body may swell and leak fluids from the orifices.

    Decomposition: Skin Slip and Grave Wax

    • After three weeks, the hair, skin and nails loosen and become easy to pull off. This is called skin slip. The skin begins to split open and expose muscle and fat. In warm climates the decomposing body will be reduced to a skeleton in about a month, in cold temperatures, skeletonization could take two months or longer. If the body has been in water, grave wax, a crumbly white waxy substance, will appear on the parts of the body that contain fat, like the cheeks and thighs and abdomen. It's part of a chemical reaction where fat reacts with water and hydrogen along with bacterial enzymes and produces fatty acids and soap. Grave wax protects a corpse somewhat by slowing down decomposition.

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