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Scientist implicates insects in 'murder
mysteries'
Sunday May 13, 2012 06:46:25 PM,
IANS
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London: Marks on a
dead body could indicate violence and possible murder - but
instead of a human killer, they might have been made by legions of
insects.
Italian-born Stefano Vanin, forensic scientist at the University
of Huddersfield, is unmasking minute creatures which contaminate
crime scenes and throw sleuths off the scent and into drawing
erroneous conclusions.
For example, ants which clamber over a corpse's face can deposit
marks which mimic the effects of a punch. Other tiny creatures can
cause lesions to a dead body which closely resemble injuries left
by a human assailant, says Vanin, the journal Forensic Science
International reports.
It was the retrieval of the body of a 28-year-old man in the River
Brenta, at Padova in Italy, that provided Vanin with the
opportunity to add another piece to his jigsaw of knowledge,
according to a Huddersfield statement.
The man had drowned - witnesses had seen him struggling in the
water - and there were no signs of injury on the body. But during
the autopsy, a series of small abrasions in the upper eyelids were
discovered.
These were caused by large numbers of amphipods -- tiny, eyeless
crustaceans which had been feeding on the body and were discovered
when the corpse was pulled out of the water.
This enabled Vanin and his colleagues to analyse and record the
post-mortal damage caused by the amphipods. The marks were very
similar to those deposited by ants on dry land.
As a result, when detectives and forensic scientists are examining
future corpses recovered from fresh water, they can fall back on
Vanin's data to explain unusual markings on the body.
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