Dom Post: Pig study may help police investigate crimes

Kiran Chug of the Dominion Post reports on the work of NZ scientist Rachel Parkinson, who has been researching the decomposing bodies of both pigs and humans in a bid to better establish a person’s time of death.

While techniques to do so already exist, there are no really accurate techniques – something the researcher and her colleagues are hoping to help address.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“ESR Forensic Programme manager Jill Vintiner said Dr Parkinson’s research could make it easier to answer questions around when a person died, which would help police investigating serious crimes.

“Her research had found that different species of bacteria decomposed the body at different times during the decomposition process.

“Dr Parkinson’s findings opened the door for further research, which could see forensic scientists look at the DNA of the bacteria on a body to establish how long it had been decomposing.”