By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
"Three days postmortem: Maggots were spilling from the abdominal region ... enlarging the holes and cavities. Yellow jackets and calliphorids were still visiting, but had fewer places to land free of maggots."
"Six days postmortem: There was a noticeable odor ... the head cavities were completely excavated ... the flesh eaten off the ribs, exposing the skeleton."
A grisly Patricia Cornwell murder mystery? Not fiction, this. Rather, these are passages from a Cornell undergraduate student's unpublished study, "The Effects of Lead on Rats Euthanized with Carbon Dioxide and on the Rate of Maggot Development."
If this report by Rachel Wignes '97 sounds like Cornwell's fictional Kay Scarpetta forensically explaining a murder, that character has indeed been an inspiration to Wignes, who is on her way to becoming one of the first female forensic entomologists in the country. She graduated on May 25 with a B.S. in entomology and plans to pursue a master's degree. (The fictional Scarpetta graduated from Cornell, something that isn't lost on Wignes.)
Vespidae and muscidae and apidae, oh my.
"A lot of people think it's disgusting," Wignes said. "They always ask how I can even look at maggots; for me it's just looking at the biology of it."
This summer, Wignes is hoping to intern at a medical examiner's office somewhere in the Washington, D.C., area.
But a career studying fresh or decayed corpses was not what Wignes had in mind when she entered Cornell as a freshman.
"Originally, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I have always loved animals, and I have always been surrounded by animals," she said. "But I was taking entomology classes, and it became very interesting; it evolved. Forensic entomology is a marriage of law enforcement and entomology -- two of my greatest interests."
Wignes' late father was a policeman for 32 years on Long Island, and he died during her sophomore year at Cornell.
The end of her senior year was difficult, too. A fire destroyed her apartment. Although she managed to salvage some clothes, someone stole them while she was moving to another location.
"It was tough. I just had to roll with it," she said. "Everyone I know was so helpful; people kept sending me clothes. The entomology department came through in a big way."
Forensic entomology is a burgeoning field. Many people blend anthropology with entomology, but so far as Wignes knows, no women have yet mixed forensics with entomology. There are only a dozen forensic entomologists in the country -- all men.
Wignes explains the theory behind forensic entomology: "Corpses come in with all kinds of bugs all the time," she said. More and more medical examiners are sampling the predatory beetles, maggots, dermestides beetles, flies or hornets on the bodies they examine to understand the arthropod succession at a person's death, -- one of the clues to the time of death or maybe even the cause.
"There are just so many opportunities for research," Wignes said, adding that she would like to work in forensics for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"I really don't want to do anything else," she said. "I want to give back to the community. If this is how I do it, if I can stomach it, then I feel it's my duty to do so."