Murder squad detectives could glean vital information from groundbreaking scientific re­search on bodies that are dumped in suitcases.

Police have tackled a number of these investigations in recent years, including the murder of Alexandra Kovacs whose remains were found in a trolley case in Hendon, north London, last month, and the death of care assistant Leah Questin in 2009.

New research is being carried out into how easily flies can access bodies in suitcases, potentially giving detectives a much more accurate time of death for the victim.

Martin Hall, an expert on entomology, the study of insects, worked on the Questin case and that prompted him to direct the new study. He said: “What we’re doing at the moment is trying to explore a pretty small area of murder investigations, but one that has cropped up a few times in cases we’ve worked on, that is bodies that are found in a suitcase.

“The question there is if there are blow flies on the body inside, did they occur before the suitcase lid was shut and zipped up, or can the blow flies penetrate through the zip? At the moment that question is unanswered so that is what we are trying to solve here.”The expert, who is based at the Natural History Museum, believes scientific study of insects will become increasingly important in solving murders.

“There is a growing acceptance and awareness of forensic entomology, not just in the UK but globally. It’s really clear that there’s a spread throughout Europe in the application of this science, in North America as well it’s very well used, and there’s a burgeoning interest in countries right across South America, Asia and Australia.

“I think globally it’s only going to become more important.”

There is a growing acceptance and awareness of forensic entomology, not just in the UK but globally

Questin, 37, was found in a suitcase in a dried-up pond in the Kent countryside in 2009, after her body was dumped there by Clinton Bailey. The pair had met after Bailey placed an advert on the Gumtree website, and Questin, who was looking for a relationship, answered. When she was reported missing, he sent messages from her phone to maintain a pretence that she was still alive, while callously stealing thousands of pounds she had saved.

The study of how insects had affected her body was vital in establishing when she had been moved to the site, and ultimately helped to prove that Bailey was the killer.

Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline Sebire said: “Getting the timeline through the entomology was really important and I think that’s probably helped bring this work on and the research that’s going to come out of it.

“It was a circumstantial case, we had to build layer upon layer of evidence against Clinton Bailey, who was convicted of her murder, and one of the most important pieces was the forensic entomology. That helped build the timeline to show that the defence case didn’t match up with the evidence.”

Poulomi Bhadra, a student from King’s College, carried out the latest research as part of her Master’s degree. She has studied the behaviour of flies around different types of zips as they try to feed on animal meat or blood.

She said: “There have been a couple of cases lately that police have encountered where bodies have been found in suitcases. In order to determine the minimum post-mortem interval, that is the time of death, a forensic entomologist uses three kinds of knowledge: the temperature, the species and the assumption that the fly has had access to the body immediately after death.

“But obviously if the body is disposed in a suitcase, the access is the questionable part, and that is the question I am investigating. It depends a lot on where the body is dumped, in what state it is dumped – whether it’s whole or mutilated, and the type of zip on the suitcase.

“Sometimes you need the timeline to figure out the rest of your evidence. Sometimes you can’t wait for separate research to be done on it so you can give a more concrete answer. I hope that my work will help future cases and future scientists working on this to more accurately give a time of death.”

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