Tracking down the Culprit

Blow fly maggots feast on moist, fresh cadaver tissue. Skin beetles prefer to feed on dried-out skin and hair. Cheese fly larvae graze on the corpse only when it turns to mush. Just what do these critters have to tell us about the carcasses they consume?

In sometimes gruesome but factual detail, forensic scientist Dr. Mark Benecke delves into the digestive tracts of bugs on dead bodies.

While forens...