An investigation of the way insects colonise corpses left decomposing in the open has cast doubt on one of the key techniques used to estimate when a murder victim died.
Along with assessments of the body's state of decomposition, insect analysis is the most common means for estimating time of death. Many species of flies and beetles may live on a human body as it decomposes. By identifying their stage of development, and comparing them to those on a pig or human body deliberately left to rot in a similar environment, forensic entomologists can work out how long a corpse has been lying dead.
These estimates are often claimed to be accurate to within months or weeks - or even days if the body has been dead for less than a month.
In an experiment to test the accuracy of insect analysis, Melanie Archer of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne, Australia, placed five piglet carcasses in scavenger-proof wire cages in bush land.
At least once a week for four months she identified the insects living on the carcasses and on the ground underneath them. She repeated the experiment each season for two years.
More: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994836
(I think we'll have no attachment pic with this story
)
Along with assessments of the body's state of decomposition, insect analysis is the most common means for estimating time of death. Many species of flies and beetles may live on a human body as it decomposes. By identifying their stage of development, and comparing them to those on a pig or human body deliberately left to rot in a similar environment, forensic entomologists can work out how long a corpse has been lying dead.
These estimates are often claimed to be accurate to within months or weeks - or even days if the body has been dead for less than a month.
In an experiment to test the accuracy of insect analysis, Melanie Archer of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne, Australia, placed five piglet carcasses in scavenger-proof wire cages in bush land.
At least once a week for four months she identified the insects living on the carcasses and on the ground underneath them. She repeated the experiment each season for two years.
More: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994836
(I think we'll have no attachment pic with this story
)
