Mystery of the Slaughtered Horse

FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY necessitates interdisciplinary cooperation with other scientific disciplines and provides an opportunity for some unusual applications of taxonomic and ecological inferences. Entomological study can be a powerful source of independent, circumstantial evidence in substantiating the details of homicides and other crimes that can not be elucidated fully with other techniques. And, in some instances, the assessment of insects collected at a site allows the only inference regarding particular conditions of death. Although forensic entomology is most often associated with contemporary homicides and other recent crime scenes, insect remains also can be vital in solving older mysteries. In 1992, we were presented with insect remains from an unusual death—the victim was a horse killed more than 400 years ago.