The use of lipids from textiles as soft-tissue biomarkers of human decomposition

The ability to determine the post-mortem interval (PMI) in complex death investigations involving human remains, is a vital task faced by law enforcement. Establishing the PMI in a case can significantly aid in the reconstruction of forensically relevant events surrounding that death. However, due to the complexities surrounding the decomposition of human remains, the determination of the PMI still remains a challenge in some cases. Thus, the identification of biomarkers of human decomposition are an emerging, and essential, area of research. Previous studies have also demonstrated great success in the use of textiles as a host to indirectly capture decomposition by-products. This study reports the successful adaptation and optimisation of an analytical chemical workflow for the targeted analysis of lipids from textiles associated with decomposing human remains using gas-chromatography (GC) coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). This study discusses novel information regarding the complex challenges of matrix effects observed with decomposition samples. In addition, the first lipid profiles obtained from textiles associated with two decomposing human donors from the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER) using GC-MS/MS are presented.