The hypostasis or pooling of the blood following death that causes a purplish-red discoloration of the skin

• A. Livor Mortis
• B. Manner of Death
• C. Nitrogen dioxide
• D. Maggot(s)

Answer: (A)

Livor mortis, or postmortem lividity, is the pooling of blood in the dependent parts of the body after death due to gravity. This causes a purplish-red discoloration of the skin where the body is lowest. The effect begins within minutes to a couple of hours after death and becomes fixed after several hours, which helps determine whether the body was moved after death. The other options don’t describe this skin change: the manner of death is about how death occurred, not a color change; nitrogen dioxide is a toxic gas and not a postmortem stain; maggots refer to insect activity during decomposition.