Applications of Forensic Entomology in death investigation.

In most investigation systems there is still a great uncertainty on the value of insects as forensic indicators. Even if the important role of insects in human decay is well known and documented in literature, maggots crawling on bodies are still considered just another disgusting element of decay; something to be rinsed away as soon as the body is placed on the autopsy table. This skeptical behaviour of many pathologists and investigators, based mainly on the lack of knowledge of this discipline, is no more admissible. The entomological specimens must be considered a physical evidence as well blood stains, fingerprints, fibers or traces of other biological fluids and insects should be processed as evidence at the crime scene examination as well at the autopsy. The major goal of medicocriminal entomology is to contribute to the determination of the time since death because insects feeding on corpses can represent a suitable biological clock eventually corresponding to the minimum Post Mortem Interval (PMI). Often, the assessment of death chronology on badly decomposed bodies or skeletonized remains can be only made based on insects due to lack of information usually provided by a classical post mortem changes in such corpses. However, during the past decades the potential of forensic entomology has been largely documented by several case studies both in Europe and in USA. The techniques devised recently can allow expert in the field to collect strong entomological evidence and provide useful information in a death investigation not only on time since death but also on geographical location of death, time of dismemberment, submersion interval, inferences of trauma, post mortem artifacts, removal of remains, use of drugs cause and even more in linking a suspect to the scene of a crime, in child neglect, sexual molestations and identification of suspects. This presentation will show briefly several case studies as examples of the application of forensic entomology in death investigations