Flies and Maggots in the trunk - forensic entomology #1

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QuickAttack

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From page 316.

"[Simon] Birch is the facility manager of the wrecker yard....During he morning of July 15, 2008, while Mr. Birch was working at 7777 Narcoossee Road, Mr. Birch was sumond by witness Nicole Lett. Mrs. Lett was working in the front office of the tow yard and was dealing with two upset customers. Mr. Birch met with George Anthony and Cynthia Anthony. Ms. Anthony was upset with the cost of the tow, the length of the time the car was stowed, and requested a discount. Mr. Birch explained the cost of the tow and storage fees, and explained the notification process to Cynthia Anthony and George Anthony. Mr. Birch refused to give a discount. George Anthony agreed to pay for the release of the white Pontiac, providing the white Pontiac's title and his driver license. Mr. Birch took Mr. Anthony into the tow yard to get the car.

"As they walked, George Anthony mentioned to Mr. Birch his daughter had been missing for awhile, now she will not allow him to see his granddaughter, and has told him several lies. When they reached the white Pontiac, George Anthony used a key to unlock the white Pontiac's driver side door. When the door opened, a very foul odor came from inside the white Pontiac. Mr. Birch immediately recognised the odor as the same odor he smelled in a car stored on the log in which a man committed suicide inside. The man was reported to have remained deceased in the car for approximately five days. The smell from the white Pontiac was not as strong as the other car. Mr. Birch stated, "That's rotten." George Anthony did not reply. George Anthony and Mr. Birch went to the white Pontiac's trunk in an attempt to locate the source of the odor. George Anthony opened the trunk and he and Mr. Birch observed a white garbage bag inside the trunk. Flies also came out of the trunk. Mr. Birch opened the garbage bag and observed several papers, a pizza box, and maggots. Mr. Birch threw the garbage bag over the fence near the tow lot's dumpster."

Originally Posted by QuickAttack

If you have a queasy stomach, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.

I really hate to be morbid, but the documents that were released last night leave little wiggle room.

The towyard manager said that when he opened the trunk, flies flew out and there were maggots inside.

A trunk is a sealed environment. Flies will not attempt to enter something like a closed, sealed trunk to lay eggs on a pizza box. Even if that pizza box had pizza in it, it just isn't going to happen. Think about the times you've left a half-eaten hamburger on the floorboard of your car. (I'm guilty of this...commuting to work, high-stress job, forgot about the half Big Mac I left in the car for a week.) Think about the Taco Bell bag you left on the back seat...people with kids will admit that we've occasionally left food in the car and forgotten to remove it.

Sometime in their life cycle, those flies entered that trunk with Caylee's body.

I believe that Caylee's body was stored outside somewhere...somewhere that flies could have laid eggs on the corpse. It could have been stored there for as brief as several hours or as long as several days.

Casey worried that the body would be found wherever she left it. Or maybe she knew the dumpster-emptying schedule for the waste company in Orlando. At any rate, she went back to remove the body from the place she had left it, and she put it in her trunk.

Possibly, the corpse stayed in the trunk from the time she retrieved it until the second time she dumped it. The second dumping of the corpse could have been done on the evening of the 26th, early AM hours of the 27th (the time window when her car was left at Amscot, parked by the dumpster).

When she loaded the decomposing corpse into the trunk the second time, fluids leaked out. Clumps of hair fell out. Possibly decomposing flesh detached from the body. Decomposing flesh with maggots already hatching.

When she removed the body from her trunk (to possibly place in the Amscot dumpster), some of those pieces of flesh with maggots were left behind, possibly on the white garbage bag in the trunk.

This would explain why there were flies and maggots in the trunk when the towyard manager opened it.

Let's look at a generalized life cycle of the species of flies that assists in decomposition of a body (if we knew the exact species, we could be less generalized in the life cycle):

From egg to larva (maggot) is 2-5 days. Until day 5, the larvae are feeding on the body.

The larvae move away from the body to become pupae, and are adult flies on day 19 or 20. Adult flies feed on body fluids, mate immediately after emergence, and lay eggs within two days of emergence...and the cycle begins again.

So, to summarize this:

Day 1 - eggs laid.

Day 2 - eggs hatch.

Day 2 to 5 - larvae move into and around the body, feeding.

Day 6 to 19 - pupa stage, no feeding on corpse, mature flies will emerge from the hard case.

Day 20 - adult fly emerges, feeds.

Day 22 - adult fly lays eggs on corpse.

Therefore, the flies that were found in the trunk were second generation flies, as were the maggots, because the car sat sealed at the towyard for 16 days. The second generation had already emerged and begun laying eggs, which had hatched into maggot staged larvae.

I can't wait to see what a forensic entomologist will reveal about this case. I think that the transport of the corpse can be nailed down to within a couple of days using the life cycle of the flies that flew out of the trunk on July 16th.
 
This was just what I wanted to know. I have been wondering since last night about that cycle...as I, too, was struck by mature flies and maggots. Quick, George HAD to know what that was all about being a policeman and detective , right? I just need another person to verify my feelings about this. Thank you so much for such an excellent post. You answered my questions and did all the leg work.

You are good and I thank you.
 
Thanks QuickAttack. Very informative information, and I appreciate the time you took to post this.

:praying: for Caylee
 
Yes, thank you Quick. It's always good to have an easy reference handy, and this life cycle of the flies in the trunk can easily be used by a prosecution team to help bolster their timeline of events. I'm also glad the tow yard manager was there as a witness when George Anthony opened the car door to CA's car and smelled the oder within.
 
Seriously, excellent work! And that really helps with the time line in many ways.

Not so seriously, one question: is the growth rate for the maggots the same for dead squirrels?
 
Thanks for posting this! This synopsis confirms what I have been thinking all along. That there was NO BODY in the car PRIOR to the 24th (when George found the gas cans) I think the entimology will come into play down the road, especially if they don't find a body.
 
If there was a "poopy diaper" in the trash bag, it would certainly breed maggots. You'd be surprised how easily flies can get into a "Sealed" environment.

I agree with the life cycle timeline, however. Just not that the only explanation is a corpse.
 
From page 316.

The towyard manager said that when he opened the trunk, flies flew out and there were maggots inside.

Sometime in their life cycle, those flies entered that trunk with Caylee's body.

I believe that Caylee's body was stored outside somewhere...somewhere that flies could have laid eggs on the corpse. It could have been stored there for as brief as several hours or as long as several days.
---Respectfully snipped and condensed

Assuming these were blowflies which are the flies associated with decomposition...it only takes a matter of minutes for one of these critters to sniff out a body.

Probably way more information than anyone will ever need about them, but here 'tis...

http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/corpse_fauna/flies/blowfly_intro.htm
 
The second the word maggots was used, I knew something was up. The environs for these critters is mainly rotting flesh, moist warm conditions and soiled or soggy, bloody or soiled hair.
It is beyond revolting
 
If there was a "poopy diaper" in the trash bag, it would certainly breed maggots. You'd be surprised how easily flies can get into a "Sealed" environment.

I agree with the life cycle timeline, however. Just not that the only explanation is a corpse.

So true Carrie. My step mother had a bad habit of letting my half brother's poopie diapers sit in water for weeks, and it would breed maggots. But I don't think a poopie diaper smells like someone died in it. It may smell bad, but not like death.

:praying: for Caylee
 
I just cannot get my head around a mother driving around with their dead child in a trunk with the smell present. I am so sad. I looked for everything that could possibly prove this wasn't true. Reading the comment from the tow yard owner was a stab in the heart.
 
I just cannot get my head around a mother driving around with their dead child in a trunk with the smell present. I am so sad. I looked for everything that could possibly prove this wasn't true. Reading the comment from the tow yard owner was a stab in the heart.
I believe medically they also use maggots to eat dead flesh. They do have some benefiial uses.
 
All I can say is LE needs to arrest Casey & throw the key away! She is a MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Maggots feed on organic matter that contains moisture. Pizza dries out when left exposed. Something else had to be in that bag.
 
Maggots feed on organic matter that contains moisture. Pizza dries out when left exposed. Something else had to be in that bag.

I agree.

I also agree that the 1st stage of flies could have been in the trunk for other reasons than the introduction of an egg infested corpse.

But the flies would also need more than paper and dried up pizza to live off of inside a hot sweltering trunk for more than a week.

Something moist and rotten would be needed to sustain the flies for that long.

That something would have given off an oder, and that oder was described by the tow manager.
 
I'm new to following this case, but did LE ever pick up the plastic bag from the car that they threw over the fence?
 
If there was a "poopy diaper" in the trash bag, it would certainly breed maggots. You'd be surprised how easily flies can get into a "Sealed" environment.

I agree with the life cycle timeline, however. Just not that the only explanation is a corpse.

Wonder if she was potty trained yet? My grandson just turned three and he is.. I was thinking mine where trained by 2 anyway.
 
Thanks for posting this! This synopsis confirms what I have been thinking all along. That there was NO BODY in the car PRIOR to the 24th (when George found the gas cans) I think the entimology will come into play down the road, especially if they don't find a body.


This way I read this 'cycle' it seems the body coulda been in the trunk anywhere from @ least 6/22 back to 6/19........because we KNOW when the car was stored, both the flies & maggots had to be second generation.....

However, what if the body was placed in the trunk on 6/16 (with no flies) then moved sometime later, & the trunk left open ('cause your moving the body) & this is when flies are attracted to any fluids/tissue that remains in the trunk ??

JMO....& if my math/understanding of the cycle is wrong, feel free to correct me........;0)
 
Yes, on 7/16......collected as evidence, & sent to the lab.

Thank goodness for that.

This could be VERY important evidence for the prosecution... it might help pin down an approximate time of death.

I wonder WHOSE fingerprints will be found on that bag. (Besides the person who removed it & threw it away)
 
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