Forensics blow fly breakthrough

Pioneering research by forensic scientists at King's College London could help police solve more murders where bodies have been dumped in suitcases. It focuses on how easily flies can reach the body through the zip of a bag.

The research aims to give detectives a better estimate for the victim's time of death. A word of warning, Emma Burrows' report contains pictures of the experiment.

The research means detectives are able to work out a better estimate for the victim's time of death - and to discovered whether the body has been moved. Jackie Sebier is a Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police.

Pioneering research by forensic scientists at King's College London could help police solve more murders where bodies have been dumped in suitcases. It focuses on how easily flies can reach the body through the zip of a bag. Poulomi Bhadra is one of the researchers.

Murder squad detectives could glean vital information from groundbreaking scientific research on bodies that are dumped in suitcases. New research is being carried out at the Natural History Museum into how easily flies can access bodies in suitcases.

It's thought the research will give detectives a much more accurate time of death for the victim. Female flies lay eggs on the zip of a bag, which when zipped tightly takes longer for maggots to be able to enter the bag.

This could mean the difference between hours and days when teams are estimating a victim's time of death.

There have been a number of high profile investigations of this type in recent years, including the murder of Alexandra Kovacs whose remains were found in a trolley case in Hendon, north London, last month, and the death of care assistant Leah Questin in 2009.