The two women lifted a stiff corpse from the ground, revealing a squirming bug in the dirt. “That one is a live larva!” said Alex Smith, the lab manager of Colorado Mesa University’s Forensic Investigation Research Station, plucking the larva off the ground and stuffing it into a glass tube. Maggots aren’t just maggots, Mr. Smith explained — they’re potential evidence. “You can actually test the larvae and pupa casings for drugs,” he said, excitedly. The Mexican forensic specialists came to learn about testing cadavers for fentanyl, which is how they wound up in a field of corpses, observing as a researcher foraged in the dirt for maggots.

---

Persons: Alex Smith, Smith, —, ”, foraged Organizations: Colorado Mesa University’s Forensic, Research Locations: Colorado, ”