WEBVTT - How Can Bugs Help Solve Murders?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>voblabam here. When investigators attempt to solve a mysterious event

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<v Speaker 1>involving sudden and unexpected death, they have to look at

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<v Speaker 1>clues in order to piece together the events. There are

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of questions to contend with what happened here

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<v Speaker 1>and when? Who committed this crime? Why? And what method,

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<v Speaker 1>weapons or tools did they use. With a vast background

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<v Speaker 1>of science, including biology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, and math, trained

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<v Speaker 1>specialists can look at the fragments of evidence left over

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<v Speaker 1>from a crime and with care and precision, construct a

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<v Speaker 1>legitimate story. They might use anything left of the crime scene,

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<v Speaker 1>including shards of broken glass, clumps of dirt, drops of

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<v Speaker 1>bodily fluids, and other trace elements. But one on or

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<v Speaker 1>around a victim's body that gets a lot of attention

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<v Speaker 1>during an investigation is actually a living organism, and it

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<v Speaker 1>usually comes after a crime is committed. We're talking about insects.

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<v Speaker 1>Bugs can tell us a lot about a death and

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<v Speaker 1>reveal details about a crime. Today we're looking at the

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<v Speaker 1>field a forensic etomology. Forensic etymology is the use of

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<v Speaker 1>insect evidence in both criminal and civil cases, and it

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<v Speaker 1>can help police and criminal investigators learn a great deal

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<v Speaker 1>about what happened to a body. That's because, just as

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<v Speaker 1>flies will flock to a piece of food left out

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<v Speaker 1>on a table, necrophilis insects or bugs that eat dead

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<v Speaker 1>flesh are often associated with human corpses. The major criminal

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<v Speaker 1>field of forensic anomology is known as medico legal anomology.

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<v Speaker 1>It's also known as forensic medical anomology or medico criminal

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<v Speaker 1>anomology because of its focus on violent crime. People working

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<v Speaker 1>in this field usually attempt to determine several important things,

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<v Speaker 1>but the keys are often the post mortem interval or

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<v Speaker 1>the estimated time of human death, and the location of

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<v Speaker 1>the death. These scientists may be called in on legal

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<v Speaker 1>cases involving mysterious sudden death where foul play is suspected,

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<v Speaker 1>traffic accidents with no apparent cause of crimes where insects

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<v Speaker 1>were introduced to a victim to cause harm, or even

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<v Speaker 1>less messy cases of insect damage to property or infestation

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<v Speaker 1>in food. But today we're talking about those messy cases.

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<v Speaker 1>Bugs will arrive very quickly to the orifices of a

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<v Speaker 1>deceased human body, such as the eyes, nose, ears and mouth.

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<v Speaker 1>Most insects can locate the smell of dead flesh within

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<v Speaker 1>a matter of hours after expiration as it starts to decompose,

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<v Speaker 1>and some insects, known as carrion insects, live their entire

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<v Speaker 1>lives feeding on dead flesh in order to fuel their

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<v Speaker 1>life cycle and create the generation of bugs. Adult carryon

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<v Speaker 1>insects mature and capable of flight will seek out the

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<v Speaker 1>nearest dead body to lay their eggs inside. After all,

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<v Speaker 1>it's got all the nutrientsa growing bug needs. There are

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<v Speaker 1>generally three stages an insect goes through during the part

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<v Speaker 1>of its lifetime that occurs inside of a dead body.

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<v Speaker 1>The first stage is the egg stage, where the insects

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<v Speaker 1>are still enclosed within their eggs. The second stage is

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<v Speaker 1>the larva stage, where the small, wiggly wormlike larvae that

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<v Speaker 1>have just hatched grow by feeding upon the dead flesh.

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<v Speaker 1>And the final stage is the pupa stage, which is

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<v Speaker 1>an intermediate stage that comes before the insect turns into

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<v Speaker 1>a winged adult and flies away. If an enomologist collects

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<v Speaker 1>insects from a corpse during any one of these stages, egg, larva,

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<v Speaker 1>or pupa, and if they understand the life cycle of

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<v Speaker 1>that type of insect, they can determine a fairly accurate

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<v Speaker 1>time of death. In other words, the enemal just needs

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<v Speaker 1>to understand two basic facts. How long after death the

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<v Speaker 1>insect eggs are generally laid, plus the amount of time

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<v Speaker 1>it takes for the insects to develop. These two facts

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<v Speaker 1>should give them a good idea of how long a

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<v Speaker 1>person has been dead. Many kinds of bugs may flock

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<v Speaker 1>to a decomposing body, but the most common kinds are

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<v Speaker 1>flies and beetles. Flies, like blowflies, can fine dead flesh

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<v Speaker 1>within minutes. A fly larva, commonly known as maggots, do

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<v Speaker 1>the majority of the eating and are responsible for much

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<v Speaker 1>of a corpse's decay. Beetles, on the other hand, will

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<v Speaker 1>typically move in once a corpse has dried out a

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<v Speaker 1>When collecting insects, investigators try to locate the largest specimens.

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<v Speaker 1>The oldest bugs should give the best post mortem interval

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<v Speaker 1>to preserve the insects. Samples taken from the body are

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<v Speaker 1>placed in containers filled with seventy percent isoprople alcohol, the

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<v Speaker 1>same strength as the rubbing alcohol solution you can buy

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<v Speaker 1>the store. The containers are labeled with the date and

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<v Speaker 1>time of the collection and the part of the body

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<v Speaker 1>from which the insects were taken. Then the investigator either

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<v Speaker 1>delivers the specimens directly to a specialist or mails the

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<v Speaker 1>containers expressly for examination. In a perfect situation, insects can

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<v Speaker 1>prove an easy tool for uncovering the unknown. For instance,

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<v Speaker 1>if a person dies of natural causes in a room

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<v Speaker 1>where the temperature has remained constant, and the coroner wants

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<v Speaker 1>to know the time of death, the entomologist simply looks

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<v Speaker 1>at the bugs around the corpse and reports the details.

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<v Speaker 1>It's almost never that easy, though. Investigators need to take

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<v Speaker 1>into account a large number of variables when collecting specimens.

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<v Speaker 1>The temperature of the surrounding area, for example, determines how

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<v Speaker 1>quickly larvae will grow in corpse. Oh when a person

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<v Speaker 1>is murdered during the summer months and left outside for

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<v Speaker 1>several days, the ambient temperature surrounding the corpse can change dramatically.

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<v Speaker 1>Certain types of blowflies develop faster during hot weather and

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<v Speaker 1>slower when it's cooler. A bus found on a body

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<v Speaker 1>that's been outside for weeks or even months showed drastic

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<v Speaker 1>variations in insect growth cycles, and an anomologist needs to

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<v Speaker 1>carefully observe the available specimens to determine a likely range. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>although many of the modern advancements in forensic science were

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<v Speaker 1>made in the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds, perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>the first documented account of forensic etymology comes from the

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<v Speaker 1>twelve hundreds, a Chinese book from that period called The

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<v Speaker 1>Washing Away of Wrongs, where counts a murder in a

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<v Speaker 1>small village where the victim was badly cut. The local

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<v Speaker 1>death investigator asked around, but after several questions and few answers,

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<v Speaker 1>he decided to have each villager bring out their sickle

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<v Speaker 1>and lay it across the ground. Eventually, flies swarmed over

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<v Speaker 1>one sickle, and, most likely because its owner failed to

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<v Speaker 1>wash away microscopic bits of blood or tissue from the blade,

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<v Speaker 1>the killer confessed and the first known case of forensic

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<v Speaker 1>anomology was closed. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>what do bugs have to do with Forensic Science? On

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<v Speaker 1>how Stuffworks dot Com written by John Fuller. Brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot

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<v Speaker 1>Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts

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<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or

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