{"id":4132,"date":"2011-06-17T15:33:02","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=4132"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:54:56","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:54:56","slug":"forensic-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2011\/06\/17\/forensic-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Forensic Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_forensicresearch\"<\/a>
\nEd Mondor has been studying the behavior of insects for over 15 years. Just a few years ago, the biology professor found himself studying crop damage caused by aphids in the Hawaiian Islands. For the past two years, he has been applying his knowledge of insect behavior in the fields of South Georgia by launching a new area of research at Georgia Southern \u2013 forensic entomology.<\/p>\n

Forensic entomologists study the life cycles of insects colonizing decomposing remains, putting together all of the puzzle pieces to help law enforcement officials determine an approximate time of death when a body is found. Mondor, a member of the North American Forensic Entomologists Association, provides students with hands-on experience at two undisclosed field sites near Statesboro, the only such locations in the state.<\/p>\n

While there are five \u201cbody farms\u201d in the United States (with donated human bodies), Georgia Southern\u2019s students collect insects from stillborn pigs to study and identify the species found on the carcasses. \u201cPigs are the best models. They closely resemble human flesh and have very little hair. Insects lay their eggs on them the same as human cadavers,\u201d explained Mondor.<\/p>\n

In the complex world of forensic entomology, students learn the importance of this field: insects can capture criminals, meaning the difference between a guilty or not guilty verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollecting insects off of a body and determining their age can tell you approximately how long a person has been dead, and determining the post-mortem interval is crucial in a criminal case. When an alibi is questionable, a timeline can be constructed,\u201d he said, describing how he uses insects to construct an approximate time since death to the time of a body\u2019s discovery. \u201cPeople lie\u2026insects don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of a forensic entomologist has become increasingly popular thanks to television\u2019s \u201cCSI: Crime Scene Investigation.\u201d While rewarding, the field isn\u2019t as glamorous as it appears on screen. \u201cPeople see it on TV, but in the real world it\u2019s a different story. It\u2019s a lot of hard, dirty work,\u201d said Mondor.<\/p>\n

Mondor revealed that typical forensic entomology research ends when the insects leave the carcass. \u201cWe take it one step farther by studying the weathering of the bones.\u201d Colleague Dan Williams, a vertebrate paleontologist, is collaborating with Mondor to investigate how bones age in south Georgia. Bones change colors during the decomposition process, going from an orange\/brown hue to white, and also undergoing cracking and splintering due to moisture and temperature differences. \u201cBeetles have also been known to make divots in the bones,\u201d Williams said. After decomposition is complete and only the bones remain, a time of death is still necessary. \u201cWe still want to know how long a person\u2019s bones have been there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

So far, the researchers have discovered that the decomposition process differs during the summer and winter seasons. \u201cThe process of decomposition is very complex,\u201d said Williams and Mondor agreed. \u201cIn the summer, because of the extreme heat, complete decomposition can happen within a matter of days, and in the winter, it can take weeks for total decomposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the active participants, senior biology major Abigail Lee, is pursuing another avenue of research \u2013 the rate of decomposition when a body is placed in a plastic bag. Lee\u2019s findings indicate that the decomposition of stillborn pigs is slower when a body is contained in a plastic bag. \u201cFlies were found on exposed carcasses within hours, but we didn\u2019t find flies on bagged pigs for about a week and a half. That can make a huge difference when trying to determine the time of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the winter research, Lee was busy collecting flies from her pig carcasses. \u201cI collected more than 1,200 flies over a 29-day period, and I am now in the process of identifying all of the different species,\u201d she said, explaining that she will eventually compare winter vs. summer seasonal figures.<\/p>\n

Another interesting aspect of the research, said Mondor, is that the number of fly species in the winter outpaces those collected during the summer. \u201cSo far, our research indicates that over 95 percent of the flies in the summer are one species, and while we are still identifying our recently collected samples, we have already found multiple species during the winter,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n

The future of forensic entomology at Georgia Southern is promising. According to Mondor, Georgia Southern is the only university in the state to conduct this type of field research, and the team plans to continue by exploring decomposition during the fall and spring seasons. Other prospects include possible research collaborations with nearby Ogeechee Tech\u2019s forensic science program students.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one else in the state of Georgia is conducting forensic entomology research \u2013 even the GBI, because it is cost-prohibitive,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have an untapped niche here at Georgia Southern.\u201d<\/p>\n

~ Mary Beth Spence<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Ed Mondor Brings His Focus on Forensic Entomology to Georgia Southern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-4132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-summer-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}