http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/12file-fly.html
This article is about Christine Smith, a women who disappeared and was found in a dumpster three years later. After she was found, the doctor in charge of the autopsy said he was unable to figure out the cause of death. While being interviewed, the daughter of Christine Smith said her mother died a peaceful death, most likely from natural causes. The daughter would have gotten away with it had it not been for Neal Haskell’s expert testimony. He figured out that no blowflies had been on the body which meant the dumpster story could not be true. He then figured out that coffin flies, flies that eat on flesh after initial decomposition, were on feeding on her corpse. The daughter’s story didn’t match up with the evidence and she is currently serving a life sentence for murdering her mother.
Submitted to Ed-line by M. McCarthy
3 comments:
Three things that were really well presented was how they said that they almost gave up. They couldn’t find any evidence, but when they found that the bugs where missing, it turned the case around. What they explained really well was why the bugs where important to the case. I also liked that it was easy to read.
Two things that could improve the article would be to tell us why it took them so long to examine the bugs and why the perpetrator killed her mother.
One things I really liked was that just by noticing there was no blow flies, the figured out the Ms. West was lying.
The review of this was short and concise, and was very easy to understand. I enjoyed how Matt, showed the before and after progress of the case surrounding the discovery of the type of bug found at the scene. I believe that this could have been improved if a motive for the daughter to kill her mother was presented as well as why it took the forensic team so long to determine the true identity of the fly. I learned that even the smallest element of a crime-scene can direct the investigation to the true criminal. No matter how un-real the situation looks, evidence doesn't lie.
I enjoyed reading about this case because it is both unusual and humorous. McCarthy presented the case in an interesting manner and he makes many good points about this article. Good job in telling us why the stories didn’t match up.
What are you talking about when you say “no blowflies were on the body so the dumpster story could not be true”? What?
Also I would like to know more about what other evidence linked her daughter to kill her mom, and why she would ever do that.
I learned that a case can be solved even 3 years after the time of death.
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