BIOL154 - Historical Perspectives & Key Milestones (Lect 2)

Historical Cases & progression of Forensic Entomology

How was death & flied viewed in the ancient world?

• Civilizations → wore amulets of flies as a protection tool

• For a long time it is known that death & flies have always been associated together

Who was Sun Tz’u (118-1251)?

“Father of Forensic Science”

• 1st training manual in Forensic Techniques (Death Science Investigation)

• First Written record of Forensic Entomology → Case of the Telltale Sickle (a villager killed from a scythe)

  • He gathered tools from suspected villagers and let the time of day & flies do its thing

    • The flies ratted out the criminal because they swarmed only one scythe → lead to his confession of the murder

Who was Fransico Redi (1668) ?

• An Italian physician & naturalist → disproved spontaneous generation

Study:

• 3 jars (meat placed in each jar)

  • 1 jar was kept open → maggots infiltrated meat from flies

  • 1 jar was covered with gauze → maggots hatched on top of gauze no flies could get to meat but were interested

  • 1 jar was fully covered tightly → flies couldn’t get to it

Who was Mathieu Orfila (1848)

• French Pathologist → insect species that visit corpses

  • Recorded 30 species that visit & feed on human corpses

• Studied succession of insect groups

  • Blowflies

  • FleshFlies

  ^First (First Colonizers) ^

• Beetles (2nd Colonizers)

Who was Louis Bergeret (1855)?

• Swiss Physician → first application of entomology

• Carried out a cases of a baby → body was mummified for approx 3yrs → 6 months

• Found Flesh Flies → pupal stage → emerged as adult flies

  • & mites (late colonizers)

• The baby behind the mantle

  • Exonerated the family that lived in the house/apartment when the body was found (only lived there for 6 months)

  • Charged the previous family for murder

  • Baby was dead for 2 years

First time that forensic entomology was used for a case

Who was Jean Pierre Mengnin (1894)?

“Father of Forensic Entomology”

• French Veterinarian → insect succession on corpse

  • Studied → decomposition cycles → Related to decomposition cycles

  • Corpses location (open, buried)

• Fauna of the Tomb→ predicable pattern of insect succession

• The Fauna of Corpses: Application of medicolegal entomology

  1. Fresh Stage: Blue bottle Flies, Horn Flies

  2. Early Decomposition: Green Bottle Flies, Flesh Flies

  3. Late Decomposition: Beetles

  4. Desiccation- Mites

What was “Bodies under the Bridge”?

• 1935 murder mystery → discovery of body arts in river; used fingerprint & forensic techniques on 2 missing women

  • The Dr. was found guilty from forensic ent. from species development of the blowflies on the bodies

Who was Adel Kamal (1970’s -1980’s)?

• compared the development of 13 species of blow flies & flesh flies under different temperature conditions

  • Development Rate = Temperature

Who was Bernard Greenberg (1970’s)

• expert who applied knowledge of fly biology & behavior as expert witness in numerous homicide investigation

Who was Bill Bass & the Body Farm?

• Forensic Anthropologist @ Univ. of Tennesee

• body farm (donated bodies to science)

• Was to observe the process of death & decomposition (fill in the gap of knowledge)

What was the categorization of decomposition of the human body, that helped us understand insect succession?

1. Fresh

2. Bloat

3. Active Decay

4. Advanced Decay

5. Dry/ Remains