Effect of duration and delay of on-site temperature recording on temperature estimation: implications for forensic entomology

On-site temperatures are necessary for forensic entomologists to accurately estimate the post-colonization interval (PCI) as it relates to the minimum post-mortem interval. Therefore, placing a data logger at the body-recovery site for a period of time and regressing these data against that from a local weather station allows forensic entomologists to estimate on-site temperatures during the time when the body lay in situ. In this study, we tested the minimum period of on-site temperature recording necessary to make accurate PCI estimations, and how the amount of time elapsed, i.e. delayed logger placement, since body discovery, affects the sampling period length.