Man Found Dead in Bed Covered in Maggots: Advanced Decomposition Photos

Faline · #1 ● 10-16-2011, 12:42 PM

No date of death, date of discovery or location is provided, so the length of time the man remained undiscovered cannot be established. A substantial, actively feeding mass of blow fly larvae covered the head and face, with his glasses still apparent within it. As general information, not a conclusion about this case, blow flies can reach a body within hours after death and deposit eggs in openings of the head. The eggs hatch in about one to three days, after which the larvae consume soft tissue. Once roughly seventy-two hours have passed, insect evidence is the usual means of estimating time since death because body temperature, rigor and lividity are no longer useful. A concentrated feeding larval mass like this is consistent with the body having gone undiscovered for at least several days, rather than hours. Larval masses can produce heat ten to twenty degrees Celsius above ambient air, accelerating development, so larval size alone is not a dependable time measure. Whether the body was moved was disputed, but nothing establishes either possibility.