Description:

On April 28, a villager found a highly corrupt female corpse while herding sheep. The body was located on a hillside in a right supine position, with no obvious signs of struggle around. An empty pesticide bottle of "dichlorvos" and a white porcelain bowl were found next to it. A large number of dead adult flies were found around the head and face of the cadaver, and a few empty pupae shells were found under its clothing. The autopsy of this case showed no obvious trauma and traces of the action of various injury tools, which ruled out the possibility of mechanical violence injury. According to the on-site investigation, a large number of adult dead flies were found around the head and face of the corpse. Combined with the results of toxicant test, it was believed that the victim was killed by dichlorvos poisoning. Due to the dense vegetation, rain and humidity at the site where the body was found, adiposis phenomenon appeared in the subcutaneous fat of the chest and abdomen of the corpse. According to this analysis, the time from the death of the deceased to the discovery of the body was about 3 months. A large number of adult flies feeding on the mouth and nose of the deceased died due to the high concentration of dichlorofearus, while some larvae of the limb muscle tissues feeding on the low concentration of dichlorofearus completed their development process and left empty pupal shells at the scene. According to the morphological examination, the adult flies and pupal shells were Aldrichina grahami and Chrysomya pinguis. According to the entomological data, the activity period of A. grahami was from November to June of the next year, and it took about 25 days to complete a developmental cycle in April. The activity period of C. pinguis is from February to November, and it takes about 20 days to complete a developmental cycle in April. Due to the presence of a small amount of moldy empty pupal shells at the site and the rainfall that occurred 10 days before the body was found, it was inferred that the time of death was at least 35 days. According to the local meteorological data, it was found that the temperature was low in mid-February, so it was impossible to have a large number of C. pinguis. The earliest time for the two species of adult flies to appear at the same time in the place of the incident should be the end of February or early March, which was the most likely time of death of the victim. After investigation, it was confirmed that the deceased had run away from home due to family conflicts 2 months ago and committed suicide by taking poison here.

Gallery

Species	Taxonomy	Accession Number
Aldrichina grahami	Diptera:Calliphoridae:Aldrichina	NC_026996.1
Chrysomya pinguis	Diptera:Calliphoridae:Chrysomya	NC_025338.1

Reference:

1.李学博,巩强,万立华,江东,焦亚光.利用嗜尸性蝇类辅助推断死亡时间1例[J].中国法医学杂志,2013,28(03):248-249.DOI:10.13618/j.issn.1001-5728.2013.03.023.