Abstract

GONZALEZ MEDINA, A. et al. Estimation of post-emersion interval of a corpse found in a reservoir in Granada (Spain). Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2011, vol.17, n.3, pp.137-144. ISSN 1988-611X.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1135-76062011000300005.

Period of insect activity is a parameter that has been shown to be of great usefulness at the moment of making approximations to different chronological phenomena related to cadaveric decomposition. We expose the case of human remains found at the ending of January 2011 in the shore of a reservoir in the province of Granada. Because of the zone in which the remains were recovered, saponification in the dorsal area of the thorax, feet and hands maceration, submersion and a later emersion of the remains were immediately suspected. After collecting the entomological evidences, it was possible to determine that they were consisting of different developmental stages larvae of Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus, 1758), being the most aged ones recovered from the corpse corresponding to the larva III postfeeding developmental stage. From the statistical treatment of the meteorological data registered in two nearby agroclimatic stations and the knowledge of development and distribution of this necrophagous specie, it was possible to estimate that the minimum time elapsed from the moment when body emerged from the water until it was recovered was of 22 days. Diptera of the species previously mentioned is compatible with the biogeographic zone where the corpse was found.

Keywords : ADD; Calliphora vomitoria; Forensic Entomology; Postmortem interval; Submerged corpse.

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