TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lutz, Lena
A1  - Zehner, Richard
A1  - Verhoff, Marcel A.
A1  - Bratzke, Hansjürgen
A1  - Amendt, Jens
T1  - It is all about the insects: a retrospective on 20 years of forensic entomology highlights the importance of insects in legal investigations
T2  - International journal of legal medicine
N2  - This study highlights the importance of insect evidence by evaluating 949 insect-associated cases, including 139 entomological reports, from 2001 to 2019 at the Institute of Legal Medicine Frankfurt/Germany. With a high number of cases in the summer months and a low number in the colder season, 78.5% of the bodies were found indoors, regardless of year or month. In more than 80% of the cases, where PMI information was available (n = 704), the presumed PMI ranged from 1 to 21 days, a period during which entomological evidence can provide a day-specific estimate of PMImin. In cases where insects have been identified to species level (n = 279), most bodies were infested by one or two species with a maximum of 10 different species. Overall, a total of 55 insect species were found. Information on biology, activity and distribution of the most abundant taxa is given and applied for 5 case histories estimating different PMImins of up to over 6 months. Despite proved importance and scientific development of forensic entomology, insects are still rarely considered as a tool in forensic case work. The main reasons are a lack of awareness and (too) late involvement of a forensic entomologist. Our work shows that forensic entomology is an independent discipline that requires specialist expertise.
KW  - Postmortem interval
KW  - Legal medicine
KW  - Negligence
KW  - Myiasis
KW  - Blow flies
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/81290
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-812908
SN  - 1437-1596
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 135
IS  - 6
SP  - 2637
EP  - 2651
PB  - Springer ; HeinOnline
CY  - Berlin ; Heidelberg ; Getzville, NY
ER  -