The crime writer Val Mcdermid describes the first documented example of forensic entomology in her book Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime. The Washing Away of Wrongs published in 1247 was a handbook for coroners and the first time insect biology had been used to help solve a crime. Here is an extract from Mcdermid’s book:
‘The victim had been stabbed to death by a roadside. The coroner examined the slashes on the man’s body, then tested an assortment of blades on a cows carcass. He concluded the murder weapon was a sickle. But knowing what caused the wounds was a long way from identifying whose hands had wielded the blade. So the coroner turned to possible motives. The victim’s possessions were still intact, which ruled out robbery. According to his widow, he had no enemies. The best lead was the revelation that the victim hadn’t be able to satisfy a man who had recently demanded the repayment of a debt.
The coroner accused the money lender, who denied the murder was anything to do with him. But the coroner was as tenacious as any TV detective. He ordered all seventy adults in the neighbourhood to stand in a line, their sickles at their feet. There were no visible traces of blood. But within seconds a fly landed enthusiastically on the moneylender’s blade, attracted to the minute traces of blood. A second fly followed, then another. When confronted again by the coroner, the money lender ‘knocked his head on the floor’ and gave a full confession. He’d tried to clean his blade, but his attempt to conceal his crime had been foiled by the insect informers humming quietly at his feet’. (Val McDermid, 2014, p. 43 – 44)
I stretched the paper for this ink drawing so there was no warping. I rather like the watermarks on the image. These are from small pools of water which lay on the surface of the paper as it was drying. This time I have included flies and bloody red specks in the mugshot to allude to the crime this woman has committed. I have tried not to make the insects too obvious. I want the viewer to be drawn in to the image and then start to think about why a woman would have flies and blood on her clothing.
Sarah Bale (2015) Insect Informer [Ink and chalk on paper]
Detail showing insect
‘the insect kingdom helps the dead victims to provide unwitting but convincing evidence against their killers’. (Val McDermid, 2014, p. 45)
