Chapter 594 The Cause of Corpse Waxing

"It should be, but it's not complete. It's just that some parts have become waxy."

Chen Yan frowned. After solving so many cases, Chen Yan had seen many types of corpses, but Chen Yan had never encountered such corpses transformed into wax.

Taking a few steps forward, Chen Yan lifted up the white cloth covering the body... It turned out to be wax!

Chen Yan had learned about this kind of corpse transformation when he was in college, but he only briefly mentioned it without introducing it in too much detail.

But Chen Yan has obtained the autopsy skill specialization rewarded by the system, so now he is very familiar with the situation of corpse waxing.

Waxing is a manifestation of late changes in corpses.

The body of a person will change rapidly after death. The period from death to 24 hours after death is generally considered to be the early changes of the body, and the period after that is the beginning of the late changes of the body.

There are many ways to classify the late changes of corpses, but they can be roughly divided into two categories, one is damaged corpses and the other is preserved corpses.

There are two types of changes in mutilated corpses, one is that the deceased suffered trauma leading to death before death, and the other is that the deceased's corpse was damaged after death.

Preservative corpse changes refer to the natural changes in the corpse due to the influence of environmental factors after death.

In particular, the temperature, humidity, oxygen content of the surrounding environment and the degree of ventilation will play a decisive role in the later changes of the corpse.

For example, Chen Yan has seen the giant view before. After the corpse is highly decomposed, the interior is filled with gas, causing the corpse to swell, the eyes are bulging, the lips are everted, the skin is bulging, etc.

There is also a kind of skeletalization. After all the flesh, flesh, skin, etc. of the corpse are decomposed, only the white bones are left.

The most common one is actually the skeletal corpse. After the corpse is putrefied, the organic matter is decomposed, and only the bones are left.

Many people have misunderstandings about the white bones of corpses, thinking that it will take a long time for corpses to turn into white bones. In fact, this is not necessarily the case.

Rapid skeletalization of corpses is possible within a month.

The speed of skeletalization of corpses mainly depends on the environment in which the corpse is located. The time period for skeletalization of corpses buried underground is generally longer, and the final skeletalization may not even occur due to some special reasons.

However, if exposed to the outdoors, especially if exposed to direct sunlight, and the surrounding temperature and humidity are suitable, the rate of ossification will be very fast, and ossification will occur in as little as one month.

In addition to skeletal corpses, if the surrounding environment is particularly dry and the temperature is very high, mummies will also form if the water evaporates quickly before the corpse decays. This situation is more likely to be seen in desert areas.

Another common one is frozen corpses. In extremely cold areas, the corpses are completely frozen after death and will not undergo any changes. The skin color of some corpses will not even change significantly and remain basically the same as they were during life. And as long as there is no thaw, this situation will continue.

In addition to these slightly more common late-stage final states of corpses, there is also the partially waxed corpse in front of Chen Yan.

The so-called waxed corpse means that part or all of the surface of the corpse is covered with a layer of oily wax-like substance, and the entire corpse seems to be sealed with wax.

This corpse state is very rare because the reasons for its formation are quite harsh.

After the human body dies, if the outside temperature is suitable, a putrefaction reaction will immediately occur inside the body.

However, in an environment with very low oxygen concentration, the putrefaction reaction cannot continue, because the putrefaction reactions of many fungi are aerobic reactions. Once oxygen is lacking, it will be difficult for this reaction to continue.

In some relatively closed environments, the putrefaction reaction stops, but the subcutaneous fat of the corpse can be deoxygenated and dissolved, and then slowly seep out from the pores of the skin, forming a substance similar to oil and wax on the surface of the corpse.

Finally, corpse waxing is formed.

However, not all corpses in the water can be waxed. The most important thing is that the space is relatively airtight.

This is why corpses in the river will not wax, because the flowing river water still contains oxygen, and the microorganisms in the water will also act on the corpse.

Coupled with the gnawing of fish in the water, the corpse will eventually decompose.

But if the body is in mud or swamp, the probability of waxing is relatively high.

As for the corpse at the scene, because it was in a sealed water tank, it had no access to oxygen, and the space was airtight. Only with enough time did the current corpse waxing phenomenon occur.

"How is the survey going around?"

Wu Zhiguo shook his head: "This is an open-air rooftop. Based on the current state of the body, it is preliminary estimated that the time of death is at least three months. For such a long time, there are no traces left due to wind and rain."

"The only clue was the broken lock, but there were no fingerprints on it."

Chen Yan nodded and uncovered the entire white cloth covering the body.

Since there are no clues at the scene, we can only look for clues from the corpse.

As Wu Zhiguo said, there is a general law in the formation time of waxed corpses, but this law is not a qualitative law but a statistical law.

There are many murders every year throughout China, but the corpses have become waxy and have not been encountered in several years.

According to the statistical analysis of corpses discovered over the years, the shortest time for corpses to become waxed is three months. Generally, within three months, certain parts of the corpse will appear waxed.

It takes one to one and a half years for the corpse to fully wax.

Of course, this is just an average time. If the environmental factors of the corpse are suitable, it is possible for the corpse to wax in a shorter time. If not, it may take longer for the corpse to wax.

Only the chest and abdomen of the corpse discovered this time showed waxing. The head was partially waxed, but not completely. The thighs were partially waxed, but none of the other limbs were.

In fact, there is no particularly scientific explanation for the specific cause of corpse waxing. What is currently known is that corpses may form corpse waxing in anoxic and closed environments, especially in sealed water. The probability of corpse waxing is Bigger.

It is also related to the fat thickness of the deceased, because corpse wax itself is a substance that penetrates from the body surface after the fat melts. If there is too little fat, it is naturally impossible to form corpse wax.

Preliminary estimates of the age of the deceased should be around 30 years old. The woman was relatively plump from the body shape.

Due to the lack of oxygen in the water, his appearance remained approximately 70% similar to his original appearance, except that the corpse wax on his neck looked greasy and a little disgusting.

If one were to rank the disgusting and terrifying degree of the late corpse phenomenon, Chen Yan believed that the waxing of corpses would definitely rank ahead of the view of giants.

Except for the extremely rare tanned corpses, the horror of waxing corpses should be second.

The body had the most fat in the abdomen and chest, and the body was most severely waxed. The entire chest and abdomen seemed to be wrapped in oily wax, crystal clear. Several detectives in the surrounding area only took one look at it before squatting in the distance and vomiting.

Even Chen Yan frowned, but this kind of corpse didn't smell like corpse, and his nose was at least a little better.

Putting on gloves, Chen Yan gently lifted the arm of the corpse. After just observing for a moment, Chen Yan discovered some clues.