A Very Frosty Law & Order

March 29, 2015 8:59 PM

In this Law & Order Episode, a corpse was found that had been frozen for "4 or 5 years"...but how could they tell? Freezer burn?

I was watching this episode of Law and Order, in which a Broadway producer was killed and put in a restaurant freezer for "4 or 5 years" according to the coroner. But how could you tell how many years someone had been frozen for? Couldn't he have easily said that its been 6 months? 2 weeks? 10 years? Does the body get freezer burn over time? I just want to know how you could tell.

Or is this just Hollywood making stuff up?

posted by Toddles to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Best answer: I don't know about corpses specifically, but I do know that freezing at normal (e.g. restaurant) freezing temperatures does not completely halt decay, only slows it down. That's why even frozen items still have a shelf life (measured in months). So presumably whatever decaying processes affect corpses were still taking place, just very slowly (maybe with some mummification, if the air was dry enough) and knowing the temperature, forensic specialists would be able to calculate how long those processes would have taken to get to the stage that they found when they examined the corpse.
posted by lollusc at 9:11 PM on March 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I know that forensic pathologists can tell how long a body has been dead based on how much and in what way it has decomposed. I also know that this depends on the environment (damp vs. dry, cold vs hot). I don't know what characteristics of decomposition a body has when it has been frozen for 4 years.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 9:11 PM on March 29, 2015

A good book on body decomposition is Corpse, by Jessica Snyder Sachs. And also Stiff, by Mary Roach.
posted by awesomelyglorious at 9:18 PM on March 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I didn't see the episode, but the first thing is checking the corpse for simple identifiers that might clue you in, such as papers in a wallet, a stopped watch, something in the pockets, etc.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:08 PM on March 29, 2015

The summary you link to says "The frozen body of a Broadway producer is found five years after his death." I didn't see the episode but was the director reported missing 4-5 years earlier? I mean if he had been missing for 5 years and/or if they suspected he'd been killed and his body wasn't significantly decomposed, they might be able to speculate he'd been preserved somehow and then look at the possibilities of how that would happen.

I have to think signs of freezer burn would be the most obvious. Think about improperly wrapped foods in the freezer - it's a very drying environment. If the body was dessicated but not decomposed, preserving in a freezer for an extended period wouldn't be that big a leap.

Also, Forensic Taphonomy says "Freezing would either kill or alter the growth pattern of enteric flora." So knowing how bacteria behave in freezing temperatures, at what temperature they become dormant, at what temperature they die, etc., would help the ME develop at timeline.
posted by Beti at 11:39 PM on March 29, 2015

Best answer: Frozen organic matter "freeze-dries" over time. Water molecules drift out of the matter and form pure ice crystals in the volume. This is slow, but continuous; you can see it in your TV dinner before you cook it.

If you leave something like that in the freezer for years, it will mummify.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:40 PM on March 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: To answer Beti's question: was the director reported missing 4-5 years earlier?

Yes, but they hadn't made a connection yet to the missing persons report, so the first 15 minutes of the show were about trying to identify the corpse. So the coroners report of "4-5 years" was based off the condition of the body ("there were ice crystals in his lungs").
posted by Toddles at 1:38 AM on March 30, 2015