The use of the microbial and entomological data for the diagnostics of prescription of death coming

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to demonstrate the possibility of the diagnostics of prescription of death coming (PDC) based on the results of the studies with the application of the entomological and microbiological methods. The entomological materials included larvae of two dipteran species Stearibia nigriceps (Piophilidae) and Fannia vesparia (Fanniidae) collected from bone tissue fragments and the bony bed. The detailed investigation of the succession of necrophilic insects taking place in the course of decomposition of organic matter and the development of the preimaginal stages of the dipterans made it possible to determine the duration of the period during which the corpse remained in the ambient environment. The microbiological studies made it possible to determine the composition of necrobiome of the bone remains. It included, among other things, the association of soil bacterial forms belonging to the orders Actinomycetales, Pseudomonadales, and Aeromonadales in the combination with the fungi of the order Endomycetales. The enteral microorganisms that trigger putrefaction at the early stages of corpse decomposition were totally absent in the remains that hosted soil microorganisms destroying the hard tissues. The predominance of Actinobacteria in the samples of bone remains gave evidence of active disintegration of the skeletal tissues by the bacterial species inhabiting the local soil milieu. The study demonstrated that the results of the analysis of the microbial constituent of the washouts from the surfaces of the skull and the left upper arm bone of the human corpse were consistent with the conclusion about the prescription of death coming based on the entomological data. It is agued that the development of the methods for the diagnostics of prescription of death coming, including those to be used for the examination of the skeletonized corpses, based on the results of the entomological and microbiological investigations has good prospects as an area of research in the field of forensic medicine.