A blood stain that has partially dried is subject to skeletonization.
The process of drying starts at the periphery of a stain, and then proceeds towards the center of the stain (centripetal).
If the stain is disturbed, then wet blood will smear while any dried blood will maintain its outline.
Use:
(1) The amount of dried blood gives a rough indication of how long the blood sat undisturbed.
(2) The presence of smearing indicates that the site was disturbed soon after the blood stain formed.
(3) The direction of the smear indicates the direction of the disturbance.
(4) The presence of some stains fully dried and other stains skeletonized indicates that blood was deposited at different times.
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Specialty: Clinical Laboratory
