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By Hilary Costa
Aggie Staff Writer

UC Davis professor and forensic entymologist Bob Kimsey gives students taking Animal Biology 50A instructions for their lab on Tuesday afternoon. Kimsey’s expertise is called on by local coroners to investigate unidentified, decomposing bodies. Krysten Kellum/Aggie

"My dad did not want me opening bodies," she said.

But now, inspired in large part by a little-known class in the entomology department, the UC Davis senior who always had a fascination with mortality is on track to become a forensic specialist.

"There are certain people who are made to be involved in forensics, and some people cannot handle it," she said. "Either you have it in you or you don't."

Orozco has it.

The course that propelled her, Entomology 158: Forensic Entomology, explores the basics of how insects are involved in human decomposition. Students learn how factors ranging from time and place of death to cause of death and whether a body was moved post-mortem can be determined by looking at the insects -- mainly blowflies and beetles -- that have manifested in a corpse.

And according to UCD professor Bob Kimsey, ENT 158 sets UCD apart by being the only basic course in the field taught in a major American research institution.

The 30-student class culminates with an assignment to design and conduct an original experiment. The only strict guideline is that it must relate in some way to forensic entomology. Most research substitutes donated pig remains for human ones; the latter are, among other reasons, too expensive to use in large quantities.

Orozco and her team devised a project that required throwing pig carcasses out of a moving vehicle on the outskirts of Davis. The resulting lacerations -- different depending on how fast the vehicle was moving -- in turn affected the rate of initial insect infestation and decomposition. It simulated, she said, the injuries a human murder victim might suffer if injured in the same manner.

"If you take this class seriously, you learn so much about the scientific aspect of life, and you also learn so much about the living aspect of life," Orozco said.

Humans have used forensic entomology for centuries, but it has only recently gained attention in the United States by way of its popular culture depictions.

But while television shows like "CSI" and its myriad spin-offs have brought forensic terms into the primetime vernacular, the dramatized versions that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up are anything but reality.

"'CSI' is to real crime scene investigation as science fiction is to science," Kimsey said.

Kimsey is the real deal in forensic entomology. His corner office in Briggs Hall is a testimony to his working relationship with insects of all sorts: A brown, weathered butterfly net stands in one corner; a can of white chocolate-covered maggots rests atop a filing cabinet, and vials of live ones sit casually on a desk.

Kimsey began teaching the class in 1996 at the urging of the department's graduate students; now UCD plans to start offering a minor in the subject next year. In addition to teaching and mentoring UCD students, Kimsey is on call for many local coroner's offices, offering his expertise in cases ranging from unidentified, recovered bodies to criminal investigations.

He would probably prefer that people not liken him to his television counterparts.

"They make my life totally miserable, frankly," he said.

The real test of a professional forensic entomologist is not looking glamorous while shining a black light on larvae. Kimsey said forensic entomologists are most in demand for their ability to survive "courtroom combat." To be considered a credible witness, an advanced degree in forensics is necessary.

Robert Hall, associate vice provost for research at the University of Missouri and one of the nation's top forensic entomologists, said the majority of work in forensic entomology requires credible specialists to testify in court for civil cases -- for example, nuisance complaints about flies near a slaughter house or infested food supplies.

"In an esoteric field such as forensic entomology, the credibility of an individual offering that sort of expert testimony has to meet at least some sort of threshold," he said. "The higher the degree that witness possesses, the stronger their testimony is going to appear in court."

But specialists like Kimsey and Hall are rare in the United States, where appreciation of the field's crime-solving value is only recently spreading to criminal jurisdictions. In July, a national conference held at UCD attracted 70 forensic entomologists, which is considered a large attendance for the field.

"Twenty years ago I was hopeful we would have a forensic entomologist on every CSI team," Hall said. "I understand now that's not going to happen. Then I hoped would have one for every state. But in fact we are still where we were 15 to 20 years ago."

Bob Kimsey displays a jar of maggots and blow flies he collected by himself and students in his forensic entymology class. Some of the blow flies were reared from dead humans while the maggots came from a deceased pig. One future forensic entomologist, Jason Graham, is a fifth-year senior who stumbled upon ENT 158 last spring when looking for an elective class. In a way, he has continued his work on the class project: The entomology and environmental toxicology major became so interested in his experiments with underwater decomposition in pig bodies that he stayed on as one of Kimsey's research assistants. Graham's new project is identifying exactly what chemicals attract blowflies to decaying biological matter, using everyday comestibles like beef purchased at the grocery store. "It's fun in a sense, like any other science, if you get really involved in it," Graham said. "There are questions to be answered -- the fun is answering them, right?" As for Orozco, who hopes to enroll in UCD's graduate forensics program with Kimsey as her mentor, her family has begun to understand, and even support, her unique career choice. "It's helping to put a family at peace that interests me more than anything else," she said. "It's more satisfying than anything else I can imagine."