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1 es IC FLOATING OF DROWNED BODIES IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA ae The following investigation was made by SA | YY mAT SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | On June 15, 1962, nn coroner, City and County of San Francisco, advised tha nere are sO many variables which effect the ultimate flotat’.on and travel of a drowned body as to preclude an accurate prediction of what wii occur. It has been his experience that the bulk of the bodies recovered have been in the water from one to fourteen days, but en occasions bodies have not been sighted for three weeks. He pointed out that in some of these occasions the bodies may well en surfaced for some time before they were sighted. called that on the last escape attempt from Alcatraz ‘ @ body was not recovered until approximately the thirteenth aye He stated that there are two principal factors which be generally govern the rapidity with which bodies return to the surface. The first factor is that of the water temperature (coldness tends to retard the formation of body gases and thus inhibits its buoyancy). The second factor 1s that the formation of the body gases themselves are dependent upon the food intake the victim and of the bacterial content of that food intake. falso stated that in some instances marine life, such as crabs, occasionally attack the body and puncture the body cavity, thus greatly increasing the time required for the body flotation oO occur. 21:0 recalled instances wherein Golden Gate bre. suicide leapers have hit the water in such a position and with such force that the body cavity was ruptured. In those instancés ihe body has been carried out to sea without ever returning to e surface. . . AT OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA on June 15, 1962, | ame er county be Deputy Coroner, Oakland, advise a e had found 1t impossible -15- 493