Not sure how this will be seen by the creationists with their obsession with death but it's claimed that mention of death has been deliberately kept away from the beginning of the Genesis story. If correct, it may be that the late occurrence of death in the universe is just a literary device. Oh dear!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2282270/The-secret-code-used-bury-bad-news-Bible-Researchers-discover-Genesis-death-sandwich.html