Postmortem artifact for scene evidence includes which?

• A. Insects and animal pervasion
• B. Hair dye
• C. Clothing fibers
• D. Skin grafts

Answer: (A)

Postmortem artifacts are changes that occur after death due to environmental factors and organisms acting on the body. Insects colonizing a body and scavenging by animals are classic examples of these scene artifacts. They reveal how long the body has been exposed and provide clues about the environment, which helps estimate the time since death and interpret scene conditions. Hair dye is a pre-death cosmetic change, clothing fibers are common trace evidence that can come from many circumstances, and skin grafts are medical procedures performed during life. None of those are produced by postmortem processes on the scene in the same diagnostic way as insect activity and animal interference.