Which postmortem change is most useful for estimating the body’s position at death?

• A. Livor mortis
• B. Algor mortis
• C. Rigor mortis
• D. Perimortem injury

Answer: (A)

Postmortem lividity shows where blood settled under gravity after death, so the areas of the body that become discolored indicate the parts that were lowest when death occurred. This pattern reveals how the body was oriented at the moment of death, and changes or fixed lividity can also hint at whether the body was moved after death. Algor mortis relates to cooling, not position; rigor mortis describes muscle stiffening useful for timing rather than orientation; and perimortem injury concerns injuries around the time of death, not where the body lay.