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| Not deterred by their assignment,
students collect maggots from an animal carcass during a forensics
lab. |
In 13th-century China, a farmer was found murdered
in his field. The murder weapon was most likely a sickle used to
cut rice. The rest of the town’s farmers were called in during
the attempt to solve the crime. They all brought their sickles and
laid them on the ground. One of the tools attracted flies, a sign
that there was blood on it. The owner confessed and was charged
with the murder. The investigation of this death gave birth to forensic
entomology.
Despite the fact that it’s been around
for centuries, forensic entomology has gained notoriety only within
the last 20 years or so. Television shows like “CSI,”
“Forensic Files,” “Court TV” and “The
New Detectives” are popular with audiences, and high-profile
criminal investigations are reported daily in the news.
While forensic entomology, the solving of crimes
based on insect evidence, requires detailed knowledge of entomology,
it also draws on many other disciplines, including chemistry, biology,
climatology, environmental sciences and geography.
Purdue is among a handful of colleges and universities
in the nation to offer coursework in this field. Nearly 400 students
enrolled in Introduction to Forensic Science, offered for the first
time in the Department of Entomology in fall 2002.
Successful start
“TV shows like ‘CSI’ have
helped the course gain popularity, but it’s very much a science
class,” says Ralph Williams, professor of entomology and a
medical veterinary entomologist. Williams got his start in this
curious field by handling calls that others were too squeamish to
take. “Folks would ask me to check out the insects on a dead
carcass. I got those calls because no one else wanted to take them,”
he says.
“Judging the time of death based on the
bugs found on the body may seem morbid, but it’s all based
on the insect lifecycle,” says Ralph Williams, co-creator
of Purdue’s three forensic classes. “It’s as reliable
as anything at pinpointing the time of death. Blow fly maggots are
attracted to the body within the first day.”
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