It was Lamar who showed me how insect succession might be delayed on a corpse in the trunk of a car, but how ingenious the blow flies were ultimately at getting into the vehicle, laying their eggs, going through the various “instars,” and burrowing under the carpet in the rear of the car to complete their development during the pupation stage. It was Lamar who determined that the dark, crusty, lifeless maggot that appeared to be burned when I found it on a human body in a burned-out car really was just completely enveloped in dried human body fluids. If it had been burned, we both knew it could suggest that the car had not been set on fire until sometime after death, after the larvae had time to be present on the body.
Lamar was also there when I found a body inside a domestic dishwasher that had been dumped down the side of a cliff in a rural area of British Columbia. His family, students, and many others, like me, remember him with great respect and love, and sorely miss his counsel.
– Dr. Jason H. Byrd, PhD, D-ABFE, is a board-certified forensic entomologist and diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Entomology. He is the current vice president of the American Board of Forensic Entomology, and the current president of the North American Forensic Entomology Association. He is the first person to be elected president of both professional North American forensic entomology associations.