Tales from the corpse ® Dr. Gail Anderson, the only foren- sic entomologist in Canada spoke at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus on Oct. 21. First in a series of lectures presented by Continuing Studies in Science, . Lisa Harrison Contributing Writer NOTHING is scarier than real life, or death. Not the ghouls at your door this weekend demanding the good candy. Not the alien autopsies or mutant frights concocted on ‘the X-Files set. Scully move over. Gail Anderson is on the job. Chances are, when there’s a murder committed in Canada, Anderson is involved —working with police to uncover the time and cause of death. She is the only forensic entomologist in Canada and only one of 12 certified in North America. Her methods are unusual, her subjects gruccome, her main accomplice’ — maggots. “Minc is the only criminal evidence,” she Jaments with perfect deadpan, “that gets up and walks away.” ‘A hundred uneasy chuckles gurgle _ through the lecture hall where almost every scat has been filled. This friendly, leasant-looking woman who prefaces er slide show. with a warning that the _. photos are disturbing, is unabashedly __ zealous about her work. “Thar dark area beneath the skin is a . maggot mass,” she begins. As few as | five years ago, investigators at a crime - scene would have brushed off-che insects to get to the victim. Now, fol-. towing Anderson’s training program for .. RCMP Officers; the-area is scoured for . signs of insect inhabitacion. As an_ Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser - University’s School of ‘Criminology she is.also ‘educating the next gencration. . cr first case, miany years ago illus: tes (graphically) forensic entomology action, She cick to a'slide of two sREDRUM: complex factors thar pinpoint time of death. Ditterent species of tlies have dis- tinet lifvevele times as they move from egg to three maggot stages: the first, in . Which they are unable to break skin and can only teed on iiquid protein close to a wound or natural orifice, (“This is why you don’t go to sleep on the beach with your mouth open.”); the second, in which they can break skin; and in the third, at about one centimetre long they become “feeding machines.” Generally it takes 24 hours for the eggs to hatch and 24 hours to moult to each stage. These times are affected by the weather, especially air temperature, and the presence or absence of clothing. After three to four days in the final feeding stage, the maggot leaves the body and finds a safe dry place to con- struct his cocoon and pupate into a fly. She also studies other insects, such as beetles, which arrive at various points to feed on the maggots. In this particular crime, the maggots were in their third stage of develop- ment, just abouz at the point where they were going to leave the body. Considering all factors, Anderson con- cluded the time of death. The prosecution brought forward two eyewitnesses who said they saw the killings take place on May 3. More than eyewitnesses, they were potential vic- tims. If the gun had not jammed on the third shot, they would have been next. Their credibility, however, was under- mined by the fact that they came for- * ward only after an undercover o} eration and one was a brother of one of the vic- tims. The police apparently were not their favourite pecpl=. “The defence brought forward what is known in prosecution circles as the - Elvis wimesses —- wo nice old ladies — who swore they saw one of the victims ~ alive and well and sho; oping at the mall ; etely contradicted - on May 9. This comp the testimony of the two young boys.” “If you were.a jury member, who: would you believe? Two young guys” who did not come forward willing — . i they saw the killings take place and did- : Presentation House Productions n’t_even imake an anonymous call to Or.these'two, ide hi middle- . c body's the aan shop. : wed ad suicide killings occurred on or before May 6 which supported the boys’ testimony. The maggots were too mature to have come from eggs laid any later than May 6 thercfore it was impossible that one of the victims could have been seen alive on May 9. The killer is serving a life sentence without parole for 25 years. But how can Anderson be so sure of her data? After all, it was in 1897, she tells us, that the last Canadian research was con- ducted. Well, pigs for one. Unbeknownst to most of us, Anderson and her students have swine in various stages of decom- position around B.C. They are used because their skin, digestive systeras and size are similar to ours. The need tor new research is imperative. “There was a lovely little study done in the southern U.S many years ago wiiere they buried a number of pigs. Great. But they buried them all in little pine coffins which is terribly sweet but I don’t find that many killers have that kind of sensitivity usually.” The goal of her rather more scicntif- ic approach is to create an accurate. database of insect species in Canada, their lifecycle lengths in different regions and temperatures and rates of inscct inhabitation depending on whether the carcass is buried or clothed. She clicks to a slide of a deceased pig looking smart in a button-up shirt and a straw hat. Apparently the choices are limited for these pigs: be eaten or be humiliated She had to turn to RCMP divers to re her out with her water research, Add barnacles to the research list.) “People in Vancouver with waterfront properties have been remarkably unsporting about letting us drop pigs off their docks.” She shares a dramatic and tragic case which would have ended differently ifa forensic entomologist had been consult- ed. In Washington D.C. a tcenage girl went out for a walk after dinner and “never came home. Nine days later.she was found dead. Anderson clicks to an abstract photo of the girl laying face up on the ground. She has to point out the girl’s arms and . ” legs. There are large black areas over ° .the body. This photo was some of the police work” in a casein - “especially bad which police concluded the death was a- no autopsy w was s performed of purchasing fine quality desi her {uxury fumiture from. ’ “ISading U.S. and Canadian manutacturers at a'fraction ‘ot retail. 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