How insect clues can crack murder probes

[Still Waters]

Dr Martin Hall has had to get used to dealing with horrific sights and smells as part of his job.

Yet the type of scene he regularly faces is something he had not considered in his "wildest dreams" when he became fascinated by insects as a child.

After collecting beetles and blowflies while growing up in Zanzibar, east Africa, he went on to study the subject and became a forensic entomologist at London's Natural History Museum in 1989.

His role involved researching animal diseases and their link to insects. Dead humans were something he had yet to encounter.

But that changed in March 1992 when the skeletal remains of a young woman were found in woodland in Dorset.

Police knew forensic entomology could provide answers more traditional inquiries could not and Dr Hall was called in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ngland-17700116