1Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai
2Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry
3Assistant Professors, Department of Forensic Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry
4Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh
5Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SHKM Government Medical College, Haryana
6Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SHKM Government Medical College, Haryana
7Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Sri Venkateswaraa Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Puducherry
*Corresponding Author: Email-drmbharathi@gmail.com
Online published on 4 December, 2018.
Insects help forensic experts in revealing proper evidences in death of a human being and also as a tool for crime investigations. The species of insects vary from place to place, depending on the climatic and geographic pattern or milieu.
To determine the time since death in a specific region by forensic entomology.
Cases brought to the mortuary for conducting post-mortem examinations formed the study population. Entomological evidence in the form of eggs, pupae, etc, from 38 cases were included in this study. Autopsy was conducted to determine the mode, manner and the cause of the death. Time since death was calculated from post-mortem findings and with the help of entomologic evidence.
Maximum (32%) study subjects were in the 31–40 years age group. Cases with decaying stage were seen in the majority of cases with temperature range of 31–350C. Skeletonization was seen in temperature ranging 26–300C. Hatching was delayed in autumn and in winter. Time since death calculated by using entomological evidence in 79% of cases was accurate or had a minimal range difference compared to the different methods as mentioned in the autopsy reports.
In medico-legal investigations, entomological evidence proved to be a trustworthy technique in calculating the time since death, not only in the early stages, but also in advance stages of corpse decomposition
Forensic Entomology, Post-mortem Interval, Post-mortem Register
