The body in the bed

The body of a woman was found in her bed in a flat in the centre of Helsinki, Finland on 1 September 1965. Death had obviously occurred on 10 August, since newspapers had not been removed since that day. This was a case of suicide with sedatives. The cadaver was moderately decayed and greenish. The skin surface was loose and the viscera decayed. Blowfly larvae emerged from the orifices of the body. Autopsy was performed after refrigeration for one day and the fly larvae were collected on this occasion. The larvae were in bad condition at the start of the rearing, except for two small specimens. Rearing at room temperature yielded two small imagines of Calliphora vicina on 27 September.

Conclusions based on the entomological findings:

The woman in question had been dead in more than 7-8 days, because fly oviposition occurs on about the second day after death, and development to mature migrating larvae takes about 5-6 days.

The cadaver had been in shadow, because the scotophilic C. vicina had oviposited on it, but Lucilia species had not, although they were still active.

Validity of conclusions: Both entomological conclusions were validated by the known facts. The conclusion that more than 7-8 days had elapsed since death is true as such, but of little value, because death had in fact occurred 20 days before discovery of the cadaver. A better result would obviously have been obtained if living full grown larvae had been taken for rearing, or if puparia or adult flies had been collected by policemen in the flat of the woman in question.