Young Writers Society

I'm writing a Crime novel and I'm wondering what some kinds of injuries obtained before death look like when the person is dead? Like, a bruise gained just before death? This is what I'm specifically looking for. A description of any other injuries to the body before and after death would be super-awesome too.

Love, Durrs

I think you'll find this helpful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1731416/

There's also this site with pictures, designed for a course on medical pathology: http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/GENERAL.html

Try searching using the terms post-mortem, necropsy, autopsy, forensic pathology, and the type of injury you're looking for will usually get you a good result.

This is just another tip but, even if you don't like the show, check out the autopsy scenes in the CSI (Crime Scene Investigators) television show. They often show things like post-mortem bruising and they manage to write it all in a pretty easy to understand vernacular. That show or even NCIS is a good one for all of the sciency things that you would be looking for. Both shows are nice starting points to nudge you in the right research direction.

That show or even NCIS is a good one for all of the sciency things that you would be looking for. Both shows are nice starting points to nudge you in the right research direction.

Good nudge, but they really shouldn't be taken as accurate. A better show would be Dr. G: Medical Examiner as it has footage of an actual professional examining actual corpses. Dr. G does a fair amount of forensic work, and so she'll point out things she looks for when she's trying to figure out whether the case may be murder, suicide, accidental, or natural causes.

Thank you guys so much!! This will be really helpful!

You could also check out this site. Course notes on pathology and forensics. The first half of the page is not relevant (though interesting to look at), but then after that it'll give you descriptions of several types of injuries, from abrasions to gunshot wounds to blunt force trauma and stuff.