Module 6 - Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Entomology (Bones & Bugs)

Background Information

On June 4th, 2002, the partially clad body of a young female was found beside a rural highway in northwestern United States. She was identified subsequently as a fourteen-year-old prostitute. Her brother reported her missing approximately four days prior to the discovery of her body. The main suspect was a thirty-year-old male army sergeant. Witnesses said on May 31st she had had been seen alive in the company of this suspect. An accurate estimate of time of death was crucial to establishing a possible link between the suspect and the victim at the time death occurred.

Insect Evidence

An autopsy revealed that the victim had died of multiple head and neck wounds inflicted by a heavy sharp object. These were the only wounds found upon the victim’s body. Numerous blowfly eggs, maggots, and adult blowflies were observed and collected from in and around the victim's wounds. Numerous photographs were taken of the crime scene, the surrounding terrain, and the corpse. These photographs included close-ups of the adult blowflies and blowfly maggots present at the time the body was discovered.

Climatological data, daily temperatures, incidence of rainfall, cloud cover, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity were obtained from a government weather station located a short distance from where the victim was found. Based on this total array of evidence, entomologists determined that the first blowflies to colonize the body had arrived on May 31st. The insect evidence indicated that the victim had been dead for four days prior to the discovery of her body.

Conclusion

Based on this evidence, the army sergeant with whom the victim had last been seen alive was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. After his arrest, he admitted to having murdered the victim by striking her six to eight times with a small hatchet on May 31st. The 30-year old suspect pleaded guilty to the murder charge, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A Small Hatchet