Q&A with Forensic Entomologist Dr. Lee Goff

HONOLULU — The Crime Scene Insects (CSI) Traveling Exhibit is currently making its way through North America. The exhibit provides a history of forensic entomology and details many aspects of this line of work. Forensic entomology employs the use of insects such as flies, maggots, and beetles to reveal critical details of a crime scene.

The exhibit concentrates on three areas of this discipline: stored product contaminants, problems with structures and medical criminology. The structural component recently has been enhanced through the sponsorship of Bayer Environmental Science. As the national sponsor, Bayer adds a solutions-based aspect to the structural component of the exhibit. This includes a station about fire ants, how to prevent termite damage, and common places where cockroaches are found.

The exhibit’s curator is Dr. Lee Goff, a renowned forensic entomologist who trains for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and is an advisor for the TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Goff’s professional career started at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, where he worked as an acarologist. In August 2001, he became chair of the forensic sciences program at the Chaminade University of Honolulu. In addition, he currently is a consultant in forensic entomology for the Medical Examiner, City and County of Honolulu, and has participated in more than 300 homicide investigations in Hawaii and other parts of the world.

PCT Managing Editor & Internet Editor Brad Harbison recently interviewed Goff about the CSI Exhibit, as well as a wide range of topics associated with forensic entomology.

PCT: How many cases have you been involved in and to what extent is your participation in these cases?
Dr. Lee Goff: I’ve been involved in nearly 300 death investigations throughout the U.S. and internationally. Local law enforcement officials will call me and I will talk them through the collection process. I’ve trained a fair number of people. When they have a problem, they call me. But they know how to collect insects properly, what types of data I’m going to need and what types of photographs are going to need to be taken. They’ll then ship collection things to me. Rarely am I asked to jump on a plane to the main land.

PCT: What cases stand out?
LG: A few years ago, a body was found on North Shore on Oahu and it was wrapped up in a couple layers of blankets. The woman had been missing for 13 days, but the question was: When had she been killed? The body was found New Year’s Eve afternoon. So, on one hand, we had the New Year’s Eve party with the in-laws, and the other end you had the dead body. The real scary part was that my wife and kids wanted to come out to the scene of the dead body.

When I got out there, the body was wrapped and I made all my collections. The most mature stages we had were puparia of one of the common blow flies we have out here in Hawaii. None of the flies had emerged — they were in the first generation. So we put them in an environmental chamber and reared them through. When the adult flies emerged — and using the thermal history and working backwards — we determined that there was about 10½ days of insect activity on the body.

Still, I believed the time of death occurred 13 days ago. My rational was that if you wrap something up in a couple layers of blankets real well it is going to delay the onset of insect activity on the body. Everyone was happy except the D.A., who kept calling and calling and asking me to fine tune my findings.

I decided to set up an experiment. We got a 50-pound pig that we used as an animal model for human decomposition. We duplicated the wrappings and started looking for some place – an overgrown or unkept area – to put pig out. We decided to use my back yard. The dogs loved it but neighbors stopped speaking to me for a while. It took two and a half days before the insects to penetrate the wrappings and lay their eggs. So we add those 2½ days to 10½ and you get 13, which put the victim in the company of the suspect – her estranged husband. It took care of his alibi.

The Discovery Channel got a hold of this story, so we duplicated the experiment for the TV program. The program also was on A&E and later on the first season of CSI. That one upset me because ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigations" Lead Investigaror Gil) Grissom was out looking at the pig carcass with attractive women. For me, my dog hung out with me for the first hour and then left.

PCT: How did you become involved in the CSI exhibit
LG: Originally I was approached by Lealand Paxton of the Exhibit Q Company. He said forensic entomology is something on everyone’s mind. I then began developing ideas and worked extensively with John Good of ExhibitQ, who really helped drive the project. Our goal was to make something that was understandable and palatable for everyone, from relatively small children on up to professionals.

PCT: What are some of the highlights of the exhibit?
LG:  Right now, we are set up with 11 free-standing modules. These are all filled with reading materials, pictures and various displays to introduce (visitors) to the discipline. We want to teach the three areas of this discipline: stored product contaminants, problems with structures and medical criminology. It takes them through the history to the techniques. The exhibit includes wonderful fiberglass models showing bodies in different stages of decomposition. They can be rolled out and viewed.

PCT: How have people reacted to the exhibit?
LG: It’s funny, but we tried to keep the reading materials to a minimum, but to our surprise people are spending a lot of time reading. Toward the end of the exhibit, we give (exhibit visitors) cases to solve. They have all are provided with the information they need to solve the cases, and at the end, they get the results and they know whether they were right or wrong. It’s fun to watch people go through exhibit and demystify forensic entomology.

PCT: What type of people are well-suited to be forensic entomologists?
LG: The usual tagline is: You have to be a little bit weird – but in a good sense. When you get into the medical criminology end of it, you are making a decision to go to things most people are drawn away from. You are going to be looking at things that are not nice. Things that people have done to each other that are quite horrible. You have to be able to detach yourself. You can’t worry about what that person’s last thoughts were. You have to be objective and scientific in your approach. You have to avoid being an advocate for one side or another. The line they use on CSI is “follow the evidence.” As soon as you start taking sides, whether consciously or unconsciously, your results become biased.

PCT: For people with entomology backgrounds, such as PCOs, who are interested in this line of work, what are some important considerations?
LG: You have to be able to understand the legal system. A problem a lot of people with entomological backgrounds have is that you are not playing with scientific rules but rather rules of the court. You have to understand what limitations there will be. I recommend that they should take law courses.

Also, before you get too far into it, it’s good to get a background in general forensics. A number of entomologists are exceptionally competent but are not fully aware of the ramifications of their work. Many times the police, because they are dealing with someone with a Ph.D., tend to be hesitant to correct people. By not understanding the forensics and the legal situation, you can get yourself in a lot of trouble by collecting things improperly — not improperly in the sense of entomology, but in the sense of how that evidence is relevant to the court case.

PCT: Is it better to have a law enforcement background or an entomological background?
LG: An entomological background. With the police type of background you tend to be an advocate or adversarial type. You need the entomology and science training and after that look at the legal aspects. We are not law enforcement officials. We are scientists bringing our science to a particular problem. In many instances, the people doing the testing are not police officers but civilians. For a person with an entomology background who is interested in forensic entomology, I recommend that they contact a medical examiner. These are the people who work most closely with forensic entomologists.

PCT: Are there different levels (people with entomological backgrounds) can become involved?
LG: The general pattern I’ve seen is that law enforcement officials will contact someone they are comfortable with to do the insect collections. These insects and accompanying date are then sent to someone who is a board certified forensic entomologist.

I can think of two cases where people with entomological backgrounds have wanted to pursue forensic entomology as retirement hobby. One person changed his mind soon after and another person was fully dedicated to it.