Lesley Cowling
THE Agricultural Research Council wants to recruit the nation’s flies to help track down murderers.
The council applied for R140 000 this week to study forensic entomology – the use of insects to investigate death, particularly of people whose bodies are found outdoors.
It was pitching, along with other science councils, for a portion of the R10-million set aside by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology for research projects that will support the National Crime Prevention Strategy.
“Insects are the first to arrive at a corpse,” the council said. “This makes them fairly reliable indicators of time of death, as many have specific and known preferences for particular stages of decomposition.”
The researchers said forensic entomology is a well-established science overseas, especially in the United States and Europe, where it is frequently used to investigate and solve serious crimes, particularly homicide.
But in South Africa, little attention has been paid to the science. This despite the fact that a large number of murders take place outdoors.
Dr Mervyn Mansell, specialist scientist in entomology at the council, noted that the Gauteng strangler’s victims were killed on strips of veld or pieces of disused land and their bodies were often found days later.
Mansell studies insects and what they do to plants. But he was drawn to the more macabre aspects of insect life when the police began approaching him for help in solving serious cases.
Insects can tell more about death than the time it happened – they can show researchers whether poison was involved and where stab wounds are.
Mansell says certain flies congregate where there are lesions on the body. And when they eat through human tissue, they ingest traces of chemicals like alcohol, poisons or metals, which collect in their bodies in a concentrated form. The chemicals show up when the flies are analysed.
Different insects show up when a body is found in water, or burnt, or when the person dies of exposure, and all this needs to be documented.
The council wants the funding for a three- year project that will study the behaviour of insects in different scenarios, develop a forensic entomology handbook for the police and train entomologists in insect forensics so that they can assist police.