GC-MS/MS Tracks Decomposition in Disaster Victims

Large-scale disasters, whether natural or human-caused, are happening more often around the world, which has fueled a growing need to better understand what happens to human remains in these chaotic environments, including the best ways to recover and identify victims. Right now, however, scientists do not have much solid data on how quickly bodies decompose in these kinds of complex, disaster-related settings. Things get even trickier when multiple victims end up close together, since that creates its own unique little environment that can complicate recovery and identification efforts. Knowing what state a body is likely to be in, whether alone or grouped with others, can help responders plan and manage recovery work more effectively. But so far, very little research has compared how bodies decompose when grouped together versus when they are recovered individually. Earlier studies have suggested that certain fat compounds in soft tissue could serve as a useful marker for tracking how far along decomposition has progressed, offering a possible tool for investigators trying to piece together a victim's condition after death.

A joint research team from the University of Technology Sydney in Australia and Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands set out to study how quickly bodies decompose in disaster situations, with a particular focus on what happens when multiple victims end up grouped together. As part of their work, they successfully developed a method coupling gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method, to precisely track specific fat compounds in human remains, giving them a reliable way to measure and compare decomposition patterns among disaster victims. Their findings were published in the journal Forensic Science International.¹

Why Is It So Hard to Study How Bodies Decompose in Mass Disasters?

Recovering victims from disaster sites is a difficult, time-consuming job, and in crowded, densely populated areas, there's a good chance multiple victims end up trapped together in the same spot. When that happens, remains can become mixed together, which makes identifying victims slower and makes the overall recovery effort even more challenging.^2-4When bodies end up grouped together, it also changes the surrounding conditions in ways that speed up or slow down decomposition, things like a rise in temperature, moisture, and insect activity in that immediate area. Those changes can cause decomposition to happen unevenly, which makes it harder for investigators to accurately estimate how much time has passed since death.⁴

Right now, scientists know surprisingly little about how human tissue actually breaks down in disaster situations, and not much research has looked closely at how decomposition changes in these circumstances.^4,5 This is largely because mass disasters are so chaotic and complicated to study, victims' bodies can be severely damaged or torn apart by the impact, remains can end up scattered over wide areas, and bodies are often buried or hidden beneath rubble and debris.^2,6 Research in this area is also difficult to carry out because of the ethical and legal rules surrounding the use of human donor bodies for scientific study.^7,8

Does Whether a Body Decomposes Alone or Alongside Others Affect the Pace and Pattern of Decomposition Under Rubble?

The researchers worked with 10 donated bodies split across two simulated disaster scenes, arranging them under rubble in different ways, either on their own or grouped together with other bodies, to mimic what might happen in a real building collapse.¹

Using the GC-MS/MS monitoring, the team found that certain fat-related compounds increased as decomposition progressed. Interestingly, bodies that were grouped together with others showed noticeably higher levels of these fat compounds after two weeks compared to bodies that were placed alone. Combined with visual observations of how the bodies were breaking down, these findings suggest that whether a body decomposes alone or alongside others can meaningfully affect the pace and pattern of decomposition.¹

“The findings of this research,” write the authors of the paper,¹ “can help rescue operations worldwide. Knowledge about the state of decomposition of the victim(s) will assist in determining the most suitable method for identification purposes, appropriate handling requirements for victims based on predicted decomposition state, and steer more precise rescue operations.”

References

1. Bootsveld, S.; Thurn, B.; Ueland, M. The Investigation of Decomposition Rates and Lipid Degradation of Victims in Disaster Events. Forensic Sci Int. 2026, 389, 113119. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2026.113119
2. Steadman, D. W.; Dirkmaat, D. C.; LeVaughn, M. M. et al. Recovery and Identification of Victims of the Colgan Air Flight 3407 Crash; in Commingled Human Remains, B.J. Adams, J.E. Byrd (Eds). Academic Press, 2014, pp. 389-406
3. Malfroy Camine, L.; Varlet, V.; Campana, L. et al. The Big Puzzle: A Critical Review of Virtual Re-association Methods for Fragmented Human Remains in a DVI Context. Forensic Sci. Int. 2022, 330, 111033. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.111033
4. Ueland, M.; Harris, S.; Forbes, S. L. Detecting Volatile Organic Compounds to Locate Human Remains in a Simulated Collapsed Building. Forensic Sci. Int. 2021, 323, 110781. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110781
5. Ueland, M.; Bae, H.; Udomkijmongkol, A. et al. Single Atom Dispersed Tungsten Disulfide (WS2) Based Nanosensors for VOCs Detection Related to Decomposed Humans in Disaster Events. FlatChem 2024, 45, 100666. DOI: 10.1016/j.flatc.2024.100666
6. Graham. E. A. M. Disaster Victim Identification. Forensic Sci. Med. Pathol.2006, 2 (3), 203-207. DOI: 10.1007/s12024-006-0011-0
7. Oostra, R. J.; Gelderman, T.; Groen, W. J. M. et al. Amsterdam Research Initiative for Sub-surface Taphonomy and Anthropology (ARISTA) - A Taphonomic Research Facility in the Netherlands for the Study of Human Remains. Forensic Sci. Int.2020, 317, 110483. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110483
8. Collins, S.; Stuart, B.; Ueland, M. The Use of Lipids from Textiles as Soft-tissue Biomarkers of Human Decomposition. Forensic Sci. Int.2023, 343, 111547. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111547