2002 16th Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Science, Montpellier: Insects and Corpses
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Insects and Corpses
[All Meeting Reports]By Mark Benecke
Mark Benecke, International Forensic
Research & Consulting, Postfach 250411, 50520 Cologne, Germany, forensic@benecke.com
Summary
(I) Brief overview over early forensic entomology cases,
their main mis-conceptions, and what we might learn from them. This touches
the very modern question of what makes a person a good expert witness, compared
to a bad one. (II) Perception of animals related to real, observed decompo-sitions
vs. animals of symbolic 
meaning. Here, we try to differentiate be-tween snakes and maggots in
medieval pictures (Dances Of The Dead), as well as mentioning toads and moth.
We also show an example where a renaissance artist substituted the heart
of a decomposed body (ivory skele-ton, „Tödlein“) by a blow fly. (III)
Five new unusual cases that we en-countered during our forensic entomology
co-operations with several police departments in Germany: (1) Mass invasion
of spiders and dermestid beetles into flats, (2) blowfly maggots in only
one eye socket of a dead person, (3) alleged maggots in a police dish, (4)
Credit card fraud and fo-rensic entomology, (5) absence of pupae as an indication
that a corpse was moved.
(I) Historic notes
Insects as inhabitants of corpses were very well observed by artists of former
times. Correct descriptions of insect activity, especially the early infestation
of a corpse’s face, and intestines can be found in many sources, including
• German woodcuts of “Dances of the Death” (Totentänze)
from the late 15th century [1]
• a painting named Les amants trépassés from
the Musée de l‘Œvre Notre-Dame (Strasbourg) from ca. 1470 (fig. 1d)
• French poet’s Charles Baudelaire’s (1827 -- 1876) collection
of poems Les fleurs du mal (see poem Une charogne) (e.g., [2])
• an ivory skeleton from the Schnütgen-Museum for
medieval arts in Cologne in which the heart is substituted by a blow fly
[5].
Flies were also the motive for the highest military order in ancient Egypt
(fig 1c.)
Fig. 1: (a) La faune des cadavres, 1894; (b) dermestid beetle skins, and feces of dermestids in the eyes of the dead person (case 1a); (c) ancient Egypt military blow fly order; (d) Les amants trépassés, ca. 1470; (e) blow fly maggots in only one eye socket (case 2).
Estimation of post mortem interval came up in the 19th century with a popular science book that included case reports already (fig 1a). The method then spread over Canada and the U.S. back to Europe. A detailed history of the early history of Forensic Entomology is given in [1, 5, 6].
Fig. 2: Webs built by spiders cover the complete apartment where a per-son was still living (see case 1b). Top left: Entrance hall; top middle: liv-ing room; top right: shadow of spider in photograph (no actual species were collected by the Fire Department); bottom: detail of living room. All the walls were covered with newspaper/magazine clips behind which the spiders could hide.
(II) Cases
1) Mass invasion of spiders and dermestid beetles into neighbouring
flats
1a) Examination of a nearly skeletonized, dried out corpse in the apartment
where the person had been living did show masses of dermestid larva skins
but nearly no blowfly larvae, pupae, or adults. Reason: An electrical heater
dried out the body very quickly so that blowflies did not find a suitable
habitat.
1b) In the same house, another (living) person was approached by us. Inside
of the flat, hundreds of living spiders, and their spider webs were found.
Reason: Person refused to use the toilet, or to clean his rooms -- excrements
attracted large numbers of flies -- flies at-tracted numerous spiders.
2) Maggots in only one eye socket of a dead person
[3]
The corpse of a 41-year-old medical doctor was found in his bed. The body
was partially dried out; parts of the hip region were skeletonized due to
maggot activity. In the facial region of the corpse, blowfly maggots (Lucilia
(Phaenicia) sericata [Meigen]) were found exclu-sively in one eye socket.
This is an unusual occurrence since on that side, a bed-light (40 W light
bulb) had been burning during the seven week post mortem interval. All other
lights in the apartment were switched off, and no direct sunlight could enter
the space where the body was found (only a TV set had been running all the
time, ca. 2 m away from the head at the foot end of the bed). Obviously,
the maggots who usually flee light had used up the one eye that was further
away from the bedlight as a feeding source. Since the continuing mummification
of the corpse led to a substantial restriction of feeding material, the maggots
finally switched to the eye that the light was shining on.
3) Maggots in a police dish
During a joint task force operation against 5000 motorcycle rockers in the
federal state Brandenburg, German policemen of another, richer federal state
complained for many days about the local food situation. On the last day
of the operations, „maggots“ were found in the food. We concluded from photographs
that (a) the head parts of the alleged maggots were darkened as in beetle,
or butterfly larvae, and (b) the lar-vae had been dead (stretched shape).
These observations made it likely that the food was neither spoilt nor rotten
but that somebody had thrown in the insect larvae on purpose [4].
4) Credit card fraud and forensic entomology
In November 2000, a decomposed women‘s corpse was found dead in an apartment
in Central Germany. Because the doors were closed, police assumed that the
dead person was the tenant. Due to the severity of decay, the post mortem
interval (PMI) of the body could not be de-termined by regular means. On
the other hand, determination of PMI was important since a bank card of the
woman had been used, possibly after her dead. On the crime scene, numerous
larvae of the „fly of the dead“ (Toten-Fliege) Cynomya mortuorum (Linné;
family: Calliphoridae R.-D.), were found.
C. mortuorum larvae are known to feed on decomposing animal tissue. In this
case, C. mortuorum could outcompete other fly species because of the
closed rooms/restricted access. Following [7, 8] who found that at 15 to
16.6 ºC the developmental time from egg to adult for C. mortuorum takes
at least 26.2 days (max. 31 days), we gave a similar esti-mation of PMI.
It was therefore possible that the bank card was used after the death of
the woman, maybe by an innocent relative.
5) Absence of pupae as an indication that a corpse
was moved
In a recent investigation, the corpse of a man was found in the trunk of
his own car. The body was partially decomposed. Since blood was found on
the initial scene of crime, and due to witnesse’s observations, it was expected
that the person had been killed several days before in his own car, then
stored somewhere, and then was either moved back, or was left all the time
in the trunk of the car.
Around one year later, we were asked for an entomological expert opinion.
The car was still in police custody, and could therfore be examined. We found
that no pupae did enter the gaps between the trunk and the back seats. This
was unusual because maggots prefer to pupate in hidden places. Furthermore,
the temperature fluctuated heavily at one point so that maggots were expected
to hide from the cold, and/or to enter diapause.
Apart from species determination of maggots and pupae that were collected
by the police the year before, we delivered the opinion that most likely,
the person was colonized by maggots at one point and then stored somewhere
until many larvae went into postfeeding, or diapause state. Afterwards, the
corpse was moved back into the trunk of the car where only few maggots were
left on the corpse. Of those few, none entered the gaps.
This clue became interesting for the police, and the D.A.’s office since
now search warrants for suspect’s houses could be filed (search for matching
pupae).
Acknowledgements
Burkhard Madea, University of Bonn, kindly submitted the
painting Les amants trépassés; Sibylle Banaschak, University
of Jena, sent a good colour photograph of the ancient Egyptian blowfly order
from the Museum of Kairo; Pekka Nuorteva and Marcel Leclercq sent numerous
reprints of their articles. Thank you very much to all of them.
Few Selected References Relating to the Cases
[1] Benecke M (2001) A brief history of Forensic Entomology.
Forensic Sci Internat 120:2-14.
[2] Benecke M (ed.) (2001) Forensic Entomology Special Issue. Forensic Sci
Internat 120:1-160.
[3] Benecke M (2001) Rein einseitiges Auftreten von Schmeißfliegenmaden
im Gesicht einer Faulleiche. (Purely unilateral occurrence of blowfly maggots
in the face of a de-composing body.) Arch Kriminol 208:182-5.
[4] Benecke M (2002) A police quarrel over „maggots” in Soljanka stew. Zoology
105 (Suppl. 5):96.
[5] Benecke M, Leclercq M (1999) Ursprünge der modern angewandten rechtsmedizi-nisch-kriminalistischen
Gliedertierkunde bis zur Wende zum 20. Jahrhundert. (Founda-tions of modern
Forensic Entomology until the turn of the century.) Rechtsmedizin 9:41-5.
[6] Leclercq M, Brahy G (1990) Entomologie er médicine légale:
origines, evolution, actualisation. Revue Med Liege 45:348-58.
[7] Nuorteva P (1972) A three-year survey of the duration of development
of Cynomyia mortuorum (L.) (Dipt., Calliphoridae) in the conditions
of a subarctic fell. Ann Ent Fenn 38:65-74.
[8] Nuorteva P (1977) Sacrophagous insects as forensic indicators. In: Tedeschi
CG et al. Forensic Medicine, Vol. II, ch. 47, pp. 1072-95; Saunders, Philadelphia.
