Insects Under The Skin? Ziploc And Matchbox Evidence In The Expert Forensic Stain Laboratory
Kristina Baumjohann and Mark Benecke
The idea of insects living inside and on the (human) body literally drives people affected by the
thought crazy. We receive samples containing alleged insect stain evidence on a regular basis which
on examination mostly turn out to be non-animal fragments of skin, hair, fibers et cetera. Those insects
(mostly parts) found in the samples cannot survive in or on the human body and do not cause the
reported health problems. We present cases from our forensic laboratory, collected over twenty years,
together with information about the samples and our way to handle the clients.
