The cases of arson-homicide in this study were not equally distributed by location of the crime and the time of fire injury to the body. Overall, 69.9 percent of the arson-homicide victims received post-mortem fire injuries. For outdoor location, 79.3 percent had post-mortem fire injuries and vehicle locations had 71.4 percent post-mortem injuries. For all victims found in indoor locations, 63.8 percent were determined to have post-mortem fire injuries. When the cases were analyzed by the specific location of the body, it was found that residences (62.2 percent), other buildings (66.7 percent) and trash dumpsters (66.7 percent) were more likely to involve arsons where the victim was still alive when the fires were set. In contrast, arsons and body locations in or along roadways (83.3 percent) and wooded areas (82.4 percent) were much more likely to have victims with post-mortem fire injuries.

The distribution of cases by general location and by age group of the victim is shown in Table 10. Two-thirds of the youngest age group died in fires set in an indoor location. However, the 18-29 year age group had more than one-half (58.8 percent) of the cases located in an outdoor site, The 50-59 age group was equally likely to be involved in a case with an indoor or an outdoor location. For the other age groups, the most frequently occurring location was an indoor one, with the 30-39 age group with 52.0 percent, the 40-49 group with 83.3 percent, and the oldest group with 90.3 percent of the cases in an indoor location.