Dr Neal Haskall

Education:
Purdue for BS in Entomology
MS Forensic Entomology
PhD Forensic Entomology
  ~education in Climatology, Forensic Pathology, Statistics.

Belongs to:
American Academy for Forensic Sciences.  
Antimology Association of American.
Mid West Association of Forensic Sciences.

Testifies for Defense AND Prosecution (~50/50)

Is considered an expert in 29 states, has testified 100s of times.

He works with a body farm as he continues to research his trade.
He is able to determine a small window for time of death based on the life cycle of the bugs found on the corpse.
Explained that temperature is an important factor in decomposition.
He has worked over a thousand cases in his career.


Layed out the 7 stage life cycle for blow flies (the type found on Asha and sent to him for analysis.
1) eggs, 12-24 hours to hatch
2) first stage larvae
3) second stage larvae
4) 3rd larger, lots of feeding, if there are enough of them you can hear them eating (desc as 'snap, crackle, pop')
5) post eating larvae, crawl away from carrion
6) pupae
7) fly

He received evidence from the case on September 21, 2006.
Some were still alive, he raised them to full development to determine species.

He received 5 samples:
1) all dead, immediately preserved.
2) healthy, raised to full term.
3-5 came from the morgue

What information do you use to determine time of death?
Temperature, Weather, pictures of the crime scene are all used in addition to the specimens.

He testified that the flies had to have laid their eggs on the corpse during September 10th, placing death on the 9th. He said by Sunday the 10th at 3:00 flies were already laying their eggs on the corpse. When asked if his findings were consistent with a body killed September 9th between 7:00-9:00PM he said yes.

On the cross examination TW again messed dates up. When he asked if it was possible that the body was killed early Sunday morning and not Saturday night, his response was, word for word, "Yes, and it is possible little green men came from mars and put stage 3 maggots on her as well." Court erupted into laughter, the Bailiff could barely contain himself, and TW looked very disgruntled.

Dr Haskall was by far the most calm and collected on the stand out of everyone I have seen testify in this case. He is obviously an expert witness, he was never unprepared, always had a quick answer directly to the point, and was unphased by the Defense trying to confuse dates.