Criminal Forensics: How a criminal could disguise the fact that a body had been frozen after death.?

Question

I know this is a really creepy thing to ask: I'm writing a murder mystery! I've read (here) that bodies show freezing by blood settling in the position the body was originally laid out. If the body were laid out at the same angle after freezing, would the blood settling be "correct?" If the killer turned the body at regular intervals, would the blood fail to settle?

I really am writing a murder mystery. This is extremely creepy of me, I know! Thanks!

I should have explained: I need it to look like it was a suicide so no burning or otherwise destroying the body. I made myself a real bummer of a murder didn't I? D'oh! I sure hope there's a way I can pull this off!

Answer 1

Just ideas:
pump out all the blood and refergerate it then pump it back in when you leave the body.

optionally refrigerate rather than freeze the body

inject a very small amount of concentrated liquid de-icer to prevent the blood from freezing. (some of the new chemical de-icers are many times more effective than salt)

Answer 2

I don't think it's possible. ANY tissue would be damaged at a cellular level by the freezing and that would be pretty obvious.

Ice crystals form that physically tear the cells apart so as someone said you'd have to keep the water in the body from actually forming those crystals but there'd be no way to deliver an 'anti freeze' to every cell. In fact if we could then cryogenics would be a reality :)

Maybe there'd be some reason they couldn't examine the body thoroughly?

Answer 3

A medical examiner would be able to see previous freezing with examination of the heart.....there would be pockets or indentations of where frozen blood had been........and no turning would not fool a examiner.

But if wirting a book you can always assume that this is not common knowledge....it is fiction...

Answer 4

Nope, the blood would have clotted. Perhaps if he had given the person massive doses of anti-coagulants prior to freezing, but this is doubtful. Burning would probably work.