Description:

At about 7 o 'clock in the morning, a female corpse was found under a pine tree in the green belt of a flower bed in a new village community in Shanghai, China. Upon examination: the decedents were dressed in disorder, the upper body was turned over to the upper breast, the lower body trousers and underwear were torn, the feet were red ankles, and the soles were stained with a lot of soil. Rigor mortis was present in all major joints of the whole body, showing ankylosed shape, and livor's macules were pale red, distributed in the dorsal uncompressed area, and did not go away by finger pressure. In the corner of mouth, nasal cavity, vulva, neck, and multiple superficial scratches on both upper limbs, a large number of fly eggs were found in clumps, and some of them were maggots with a diameter of 0.1cm. There were only a few maggots in the deep wounds of the neck and chest. The decedent's face was bruised and swollen. There were many pink-like bleeding spots in the conjunctiva of both eyes, slight corneal opacity, and scattered damage to the oral mucosa. There were five superficial skin scratches on the front of the neck and two punctures on the right side that penetrated deep into the muscles. There was congestion at the base of the tongue and epiglottis, and there was bleeding in the hypoglossal muscles. There were scattered hemorrhagic spots under the epicardium and under the pleura of both lungs, and a small amount of heart blood in the heart cavity was dark red flowing. There was a 2-cm puncture wound at the midclavicular line between the left fourth intercostal space, which reached into the thoracic cavity and created a penetrating wound in the left lower lobe of the lung and the left atrium, and the gastric contents had partially displaced into the duodenum. There were multiple skin scratches on both upper limbs. The deceased had incontinence of bowel and bladder, and a vaginal swab was taken from the deceased to detect sperm.

According to the digestion of gastric contents, it was estimated to be about 2 to 3 hours after the last meal. There was no obvious decomposition of the corpse, and the early corpse was obvious. It was speculated that the death time was at least 12 hours, but this was contradicted by the facts of the case. According to the knowledge of forensic entomology, it was in the middle of summer at that time, and the temperature was estimated to be 31℃. Under these conditions, flies would fly and lay eggs about a few minutes after the outdoor person died, and the eggs would hatch into maggots after about 10 hours. At 35℃, maggots will hatch after a few minutes and crawl after a few hours. The time of death was assumed to be around 10 p.m. the previous night. After the case was solved, it was confirmed that a man and the victim had dinner together and were lured to the victim's place at 9 p.m. and finally killed.

Reference:

1.卢嘉平.法医昆虫学在检案中应用1例[J].法医学杂志,2001(03):184-185.