Chapter 230: Chapter 230

Of course, Lu Chuan only gave a rough explanation.

The actual operation requires much more detail.

The kind of instant judgment on the time of death by looking at the length of maggots is mostly fictional.

In real forensic entomology, estimating the time of death from the growth cycle of corpse parasites requires a lot of experimental assistance.

After listening to Lu Chuan's explanation, Wang Changjiang was a bit bewildered.

With his expertise as a professional forensic doctor, he could certainly understand what Lu Chuan was saying.

But it was because he could understand that he was bewildered.

Isn't Lu Chuan a crime scene investigator?

Since when did he know about forensic entomology, a field quite obscure even among forensic experts?

He understands skeleton identification analysis, and now he seems to have some knowledge of forensic entomology.

What exactly did he study in college?

Behind the gas mask, Shen Yan's expression remained quite calm.

Lu Chuan had mentioned to her before that he had some knowledge of forensic entomology.

Liu Guodong didn't know that Lu Chuan had some research in forensic entomology.

However, in crime scene investigation, fingerprint analysis, and skeleton identification analysis, Lu Chuan had already shown sufficient expertise.

So adding another item didn't seem impossible.

Liu Guodong cleared his throat: "Alright, I'll go back to the lab. Yang Sen and Old Bai haven't finished the identification tests on the dagger. I'll keep an eye on that."

"Lu, since there's nothing major on our side, help Forensic Doctor Wang with estimating the time of death of the body."

Liu Guodong grabbed his coat and left directly.

"What needs to be done next?"

As the leading forensic surgeon, Shen Yan sought Lu Chuan's advice before starting the autopsy.

"I need to collect a sufficient number of larvae and some skin and organ fragments from the body surface."

"Preferably from the liver, and the eyelids too, if they can still be extracted, a bit of that would be best."

Any eggs parasitizing on the body are mostly from blowflies.

The larvae of these blowflies, upon hatching, have no teeth or other means to attack.

So blowflies choose to lay eggs in the softest places.

On the surface of the body, the first places infected with parasite eggs are usually the eyelids, nasal mucosa, and oral mucosa.

Inside the body, the liver is the most tender and is the first to be infested and then decomposed.

Shen Yan nodded. Such detailed operations were clearly not Lu Chuan's expertise, needing her as a professional forensic doctor to handle.

The two worked while chatting.

"I learned in college that blowfly eggs start to hatch after two or three days of parasitization, right?"

Although Shen Yan didn't have extensive research in forensic entomology, her foundational knowledge was solid and sufficient.

Lu Chuan nodded in confirmation: "That's generally the case, but it mainly depends on the external temperature and humidity."

"Blowfly eggs won't begin to hatch until the temperature is over 15 degrees Celsius, and the maximum hatching temperature cannot exceed 40 degrees Celsius."

"If the weather is cold, the hatching period can be delayed by about a month."

"When the external temperature is around 35 degrees Celsius, this period shortens to a day, or even to just twelve hours in ideal humidity conditions."

Lu Chuan placed a dozen or so white, plump larvae of different sizes into bottles, examining them. Each was excessively fat, squirming madly at the bottom of the bottle.

It was evident that judging by the size of the larvae, the hatching times of these egg batches were not synchronized.

Shen Yan nodded. She either couldn't recall this information or perhaps never learned it.

"I remember the book stated that generally, the pupation cycle of blowflies is about a week?"

"Yes," Lu Chuan continued placing the larvae separated from the corpse by Shen Yan into the bottles: "But this can't determine the time of death."

What Lu Chuan needed to do was find out the largest and the smallest larvae to judge the generational relationship.

"The largest larvae on the corpse might not necessarily be the progeny of the first wave of blowflies that laid eggs."

"It might be the second or even the third generation."

If identified as the first generation, the decay time of the body should be around a week.

But this also depends on the body's external environment, although it's unlikely to exceed two weeks.

However, it was just April in Haizhou City, and although the weather had warmed up, it wasn't extremely hot.

At least it hadn't reached the optimal hatching temperature for blowfly eggs.

In this environment, the body wouldn't decay rapidly.

But considering the body's level of decomposition, it didn't seem like one or two weeks would lead to such a state.

Thus, the blowfly eggs might not be first-generation; they could be second or even third-generation.

"The possibility of a fourth generation is very small. If blowflies had developed to the fourth generation, then the eggs' hatching time would be at least over a month."

Lu Chuan picked up a very small larva, about three millimeters: "In the colder weather of March in Haizhou City, the body wouldn't decompose so severely, and blowflies wouldn't proliferate and pass on generations so rapidly."

As they chatted, Wang Changjiang silently listened nearby, not interrupting. He seemed interested in their conversation as well.

But as the most experienced forensic doctor in Haizhou City, seeking forensic advice from a new crime scene investigator, or rather learning secretly, felt a bit embarrassing.

So, Wang Changjiang simply remained silent, as his task today was merely to record.

Shen Yan, with formal education and over two years of work experience, had enough experience and theoretical knowledge.

Performing an autopsy on a corpse was not a problem.

"Actually, not all maggot larvae are harmful. I read a paper last year about using fruit fly larvae to consume necrotic tissue and accelerate the healing of decayed wounds."

Selection of larvae from the body surface was nearly complete, and Shen Yan was ready to start the autopsy.

"There is such a treatment method, but it's more commonly used clinically abroad. In our country, not so much."

"The main reason is the lack of professionals in this field."

Cultivating fruit fly larvae isn't particularly complex.

The key is how to conduct sterile cultivation.

Otherwise, using fruit fly larvae bred on random decaying tissue to treat decayed wounds might lead to new infections before healing the old wounds.

However, in a sterile environment, decay stops, and fruit fly larvae naturally cannot hatch or grow.

This seems fundamentally a paradoxical topic.

But Lu Chuan knew that sterile cultivation was possible. His intermediate level corpse parasite egg identification analysis included knowledge on this aspect.