A badly burned body was discovered with its face and neck colonized by fly larvae. Given the condition of the body, identification was not possible. Short tandem repeat (STR) typing was performed using the gastrointestinal contents of maggots collected from the victim and was compared to STR profiles obtained from the alleged father. The probability of paternity was 99.685%. Thus, this comparative DNA test enabled the conclusive identification of the remains. This is the first reported case of analysis of human DNA isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of maggots used to identify a victim in a criminal case.Via New Scientist.
10 October 2012
Burn victim identified by her DNA inside maggots
As explained in the abstract of an article in the Journal of Forensic Sciences:
Wouldn't bone marrow have been more suitable / less likely to be challenged in court than a new technique involving possible contamination of the sample by anything the insect happened to consume.
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