Would your beloved cat or dog eat you if you died alone at home? Forensic science suggests that even our most affectionate companions may eventually become scavengers.

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how animal scavenging alters human remains after death. Drawing from documented cases and a recent Greek forensic anthropology study, I examine how scavengers consume soft tissues, scatter bones, and leave marks that can be mistaken for trauma. These postmortem changes can complicate death investigations, making it essential to distinguish what caused death from what happened afterward.

Death does not end biological activity. Sometimes, what appears to be evidence of violence is simply evidence that nature continued its work.

📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.

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#TheForensicLens #ForensicAnthropology #ForensicTaphonomy #AnimalScavenging #PostmortemChanges

Can refrigeration stop decomposition? Not quite.

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine what happens when a body is placed in cold storage—and why refrigeration can complicate rather than simplify estimates of time since death. Using a recent decomposition study and the case of a woman found inside a refrigerator in Rodriguez, Rizal, I explore how microbial activity, insect development, body temperature, airflow, and prior decomposition can continue to shape the postmortem record even in the cold.

The episode also explains why forensic scientists cannot simply subtract the number of days a body spent refrigerated from the postmortem interval. Refrigeration becomes part of the body’s history, altering some biological clocks while leaving others partly active.

Cold can slow decomposition. It can distort the timeline. But it does not freeze death in place.

📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.

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#TheForensicLens #ForensicTaphonomy #Decomposition #PostmortemInterval #ForensicScience

What if a crime scene could be sampled not only from the objects inside it, but from the air itself?

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine a new study on airborne environmental DNA, or eDNA, and its potential use in short-duration crime scenes. Researchers staged fifteen-minute residential burglaries and then tested whether intruders could still be detected genetically after they had left. In some cases, air sampling identified the intruder more successfully than swabbing surfaces they had deliberately touched.

The findings are promising, but they also reveal the interpretive challenges of environmental DNA. Air can contain complex mixtures from residents, visitors, researchers, and older biological material resuspended by movement. Dust, surfaces, and air may therefore tell different stories about occupancy, contact, and recent presence.

Airborne eDNA is not yet ready for routine casework, but it expands a familiar forensic principle. Locard taught us that every contact leaves a trace. Perhaps, increasingly, every presence does too.

📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.

🌐 Learn more about my work here.

#TheForensicLens #EnvironmentalDNA #ForensicGenetics #CrimeSceneInvestigation #ForensicScience