Partly mummified body. In the face, blowfly maggots of the green bottle fly Lucilia sericata were found exclusively in one eye socket. See text for further details on this case. 

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... approximate minimum interval of around 3 weeks would have been a culpable flaw of the paid professional caregiver who was supposed to look after the woman once every week. The caregiver, however, claimed that she had called the woman about 2 weeks prior, but the elderly woman allegedly rejected any visits. This possibility could not be ruled out because the old woman was known to be healthy, but mentally unstable and displaying “diffi- cult” behavior. This case shows the importance of a death scene visit by the forensic entomologist: the insects would not have been collected by the police investigators because they did not appear to be feeding on the corpse. They were considered just to “lay around by chance.” In marked contrast to the entomological findings, it was assumed that the caregiver had tried her best and no criminal or civil accusation followed. In September 2002, an elderly woman was found dead in her apartment in an urban town in Germany. Her one foot was wrapped in a plastic bag (Fig. 7). Inside the plastic bag, numerous larvae of Lucilia sericata were found. Inside of the flat, the police explicitly stated the absence of adult flies. However, the apartment was in bad shape and even the landlord had noted in Janu- ary 2002 that renovations were urgently necessary as a result of wet spots in the walls. He also had noted the presence of “small flies.” The women did not clean her toilet appropriately, and wet clothing was found in the washbowl. Therefore, a fly population could have been established even without injuries to the woman. To everybody’s surprise, the caregiver openly stated that “it is well possible that the foot of the person was wrapped in a plastic bag and that maggots may have been present inside of the plastic bag during the lifetime of the woman.” The general practitioner estimated the PMI as more than 2 days. The age of the maggots was estimated from their size (11 mm) as approx 4 days (4 × 24 hours) at a recorded environmental temperature of 20 ° C. However, judging by the deep tissue loss of the woman’s foot, it was decided that most likely the maggots had been feeding on the living woman for at least 1 week while she was still alive, but then the maggots left the bag to pupate elsewhere. The apartment could not be checked for pupae, however. In March 2002, the corpse of an elderly woman was found in her apartment in an urban environment in Germany. The apartment was untidy in non- organic terms, but no rotten organic matter was present. The following insects were found on the corpse: larval Fannia canicularis house flies, larval Muscina stabulans stable flies, and adult Dermestes lardarius larder beetles. These insects are known to build up populations inside of human housings (37,58) , but the presence of Fannia frequently hints toward the presence of feces and urine (e.g., in cases of neglect). In this case, further evidence of neglect of the living person was appar- ent as a result of the fact that the (obviously alive) skin was not fed on by the larvae and that pressure spots (Fig. 8) had formed. The eyes of the corpse were intact. Pupae of an unknown species were mentioned in a police report but they had not been collected. This led us to conclude that the corpse was not inhabited postmortem. If the eggs would have been deposited after the death of the woman, there would have been at least a minimal presence of eggs or larvae in the region of the eyes, ears, or nose because these are, together with wounds, preferred spots for colonization. The woman’s son was prosecuted for neglect of his mother. He claimed that he fed his mother the evening before she died and that she was well at that time. Referring to the entomological findings and the pressure spots, his statement was not believed by the court. We could not answer whether or not the woman had suffered from pain by larvae living on her body. From physicians performing maggot therapy (44–47,59–61) it is known that blowfly maggots inside of wounds may cause no pain at all, but may also cause severe pain. Close cooperation between forensic scientists, medicolegal investigators, and police forces have made it possible to estimate not only the PMI but also the amount of time a child was left neglected. In one particular case, on the skin surface under the diaper of a dead child (anogenital region), third instar larvae of the false stable fly Muscina stabulans and the lesser house fly Fannia canicularis L. were found. F. canicularis adults are attracted to both feces and urine. From the face, larvae of the bluebottle fly Calliphora vomitoria were collected. C. vomitoria maggots are typical early inhabitants of corpses. From the developmental times of the flies it was estimated that the anogenital region of the child had not been cleaned for about 14 days (range: 7–21 days) and that death had occurred only 6–8 days prior to the finding of the body. This led to a conviction not only of the mother but also of the welfare workers involved. The court decided that the time span between the onset of neglect and death of the child was long enough to seek medical advice and help, thus the child ́s life could have been saved (62–64) . A 41-year-old physician was found dead on his bed. The body was partially mummified and parts of the hip region were skeletonized as a result of maggot activity. In the face, blowfly maggots ( Lucilia [Phaenicia] sericata ) were found exclusively in one eye socket (Fig. 9). This is a very unusual occurrence because on that side a bedlight (40 W light bulb) had been switched on during the 7-week duration of the PMI. All other lights in the apartment were switched off, and no direct sunlight could enter the room where the body was found (only a TV set had been running all the time, about 2 m away from the head, at the foot of the bed). Obviously, the maggots, which usually flee light, had used the one eye that was further away from the light at the bed as the primary feeding source. Because continuing mummification led to a sub- stantial restriction of the feeding material, the maggots finally switched to the eye on which the light was shining (65) . In November 2000, a decomposed woman’s corpse was found in an apartment in a town in Central Germany. Because the doors were regularly closed, police assumed that the dead person was the tenant. As a result of the severity of decay, the PMI could not be determined by means of classical forensic pathology. On the other hand, determination of the PMI was important in this case because a credit card of the woman had been used, possibly after her death. At the death scene, numerous larvae of the “fly of the dead,” Cynomya mortuorum, were found. C. mortuorum larvae are known to normally feed on decomposing ani- mal tissue. In this case, C. mortuorum could outcompete other fly species because of the closed rooms/restricted access. According to Nuorteva and Stærkeby (2,7), who found that at 15–16.6oC the developmental time from egg to adult for C. mortuorum takes at least 26.2 days (maximum 31 days), we gave a similar estimation of colonization time. It was therefore possible that the bank card was used after the death of the woman (62) . The corpse of a man was found in the trunk of his car. The body was partially decomposed. Because blood was found at the scene where the man was suspected to be killed, and as a result of witnesses’ observations, it was assumed that (a) the man had been killed several days before in his car, then had been stored somewhere else and then was moved back or (b) he had been stored all the time in the trunk of the car. About 1 year later, we were asked for an entomological expert opinion. The car was still in police custody and therefore could be examined. We found that no pupae had entered the gaps between the trunk and the back seats. This was unusual because maggots prefer to pupate in hidden places. Furthermore, the temperature had fluctuated heavily at one point so that maggots were expected to hide from the cold and/or to enter diapause. Apart from species determination of maggots and pupae that had been collected by the police the year before, we delivered the opinion that most likely the person was colo- nized by maggots at one point and then stored somewhere until many larvae went into a postfeeding or diapause state. Afterward, the corpse was moved back into the trunk of the car where only a few maggots were left on the corpse. Of those few, none entered the gaps. This clue became of great interest for the police and the district attorney’s (prosecution’s) office. Since this incident, the district attorney makes out search warrants for suspects’ houses in respective cases to search them for matching pupae. Under real casework conditions it might be necessary to adapt the collection procedure of arthropod evidence to the given situation or to local pro- cedural regulations (e.g., chain of custody regulations). However, for training of federal agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (United States of America) and Bundeskriminalamt (Germany) we developed the following guidelines (66,67) ...