CR Claire Martin
- Dr Paola Magni helps to solve crimes using bugs.
- The leading forensic entomologist uses insects and other small creatures to help crack murder cases.
- She has a CSI character based on her ground-breaking work
- Her research led to a study on missing con woman Melissa Caddick’s suspected foot.
Here Paola tells her story in her own words
Peering down the microscope at the wriggling insects, I smiled.
I’d always felt at home in my lab studying barnacles, beetles, blowflies and bugs.
Growing up in Turin, Italy, I was never interested in dolls. Instead I was fascinated by creepy crawlies. I’d carefully examine the snails Mum picked off lettuce before serving it, and whenever I found big hairy spiders around the house, I kept them in boxes as pets.
When my parents bought me a microscope, aged eight, I was thrilled.
I felt like my hero, David Attenborough.
As I got older, my fascination with bugs and marine life grew and, after graduating from school, I studied natural sciences at uni.
It was during my course that I learned the vital role bugs played in nature and food chains.
I also learned they can establish information at crime scenes, including a victim’s time of death.
Desperate to learn more, I moved to the US to complete my masters degree in forensic entomology, as well as an FBI course on recovery and identifying human remains.
Back in Italy, I landed a role helping police on cases involving human and animal victims to determine where, when and why they died.
I trained investigators, pathologists and lawyers on the role nature can play in solving crimes.
And I taught classes to the military police on forensic entomology and aquatic forensics.
‘Bugs don’t lie,‘ I thought.
I was heartbroken to read in the newspapers about the death of a local teenager Federica Mangiapelo, whose body was found near Lake Bracciano, around 45 minutes from Rome, in 2012. She was only 16.
Federica showed no signs of trauma, but her shoulder was dislocated, her jacket was half off, and her handbag and phone were missing. Her hair, clothes and shoes were also wet, but it didn’t necessarily mean she’d been in the lake as it’d been raining the night before.
An autopsy revealed she suffered cardiac arrest and it was concluded she died of natural causes, thought to be related to the epilepsy she’d suffered as a child.
However her family weren’t convinced. They were adamant she’d met with foul play.
She’d spent the night before with her boyfriend Marco Di Muro when they’d gone out clubbing.
Marco claimed they’d had an argument when they left the club around 3am, so he dropped her off near a supermarket then went straight home.
But CCTV footage from a petrol station showed him filling up his car in the early hours of the morning.
One of the detectives investigating the case who’d attended my classes, recommended the public prosecutor ask for my help. Suspecting Marco had lied about his involvement in Federica’s death, the prosecutor requested my expertise to see if they’d missed any vital clues.
‘If Federica died in the water, there is a good chance of finding plankton in her body,’ I said.
I helped establish that the same plankton as collected from the lake was on Marco’s clothes. The case was reopened and further testing found the same organisms were in Federica’s body.
It took two years, but in 2014 Marco Di Muro was arrested and charged with aggravated murder.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed he had held Federica’s head under water.
Finally, in July 2015, he was convicted of murder and is currently serving 14 years in prison.
‘We couldn’t have done it without you,’ police on the case said.
A forensic scientist specialising in entomology and aquatic forensics since then, I’ve assisted in numerous criminal investigations around the world.
During one in Italy, I was called to a case where the body of a man had lain undisturbed for 18 months and was mummified.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ detectives told me.
The body was a writhing mass of beetles and poo. The man had died a natural death – examining the beetle poop helped determine how long the body had been deceased.
Bugs don’t lie, I thought.
Having worked on countless homicide cases, I was so excited when the producers of the Italian crime show called RIS Delitti Imperfetti, which translates to Imperfect Crimes, created a character based on me. In 2013 I relocated to Perth, WA, and since then have provided my expertise on live and cold cases. In 2017 I released a podcast called The Bug Whisperer and the name stuck. I love it!
My research on barnacles attaching to shoes in the water, was used by the team who worked on the severed foot that washed up on a NSW south coast beach in November 2021. It was thought to be that of missing con-woman Melissa Caddick.
‘I donated my placentas for cadaver dogs training.’
I’m now Associate Professor of Forensic Science at Murdoch University in Perth and work on cases as an expert witness.
Keen to help with the identification of victims, when my daughters, Elara and Zelda, were born, I donated my placentas for cadaver dogs training.
In 2022, I became Australian ambassador for an art initiative known as the Red Shoes Project, started in Mexico in 2009 by artist Elina Chauvet. It aims to raise awareness of gender-based violence, displaying hundreds of red shoes to symbolise women who have been killed.
I dedicated my pair of shoes to the many female victims I’d worked on, including Federica.
I’m hoping to create a better world for Elara, six, and Zelda, three, who think I just play with bugs. My career may not be for everybody, but I’m proud to be a bug whisperer.
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