Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and this week on Pushing Up Lilies, we’re bringing back one of our most popular episodes from way back -Episode 02! As a death investigator, I see a lot more than what they show you on TV, and let me tell you, it’s not always glamorous. From flies and gnats to spiders and roaches, we deal with it all. This episode dives into the realities of forensic work, including the not-so-pleasant side effects - like dodging creepy crawlies and going home with a scent that’s… well, less than fresh. If you missed this one the first time, now’s your chance to catch up! And if you’ve already listened, take a walk down memory lane with me as we revisit the less-talked-about side of crime scene investigations.
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00:06
Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I'm your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
00:24
Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? You always hear that everything is bigger in Texas, and that is true of insects as well. As death investigators, we deal on a daily basis with all kinds of insects, roaches, flies, gnats, spiders.
00:48
And those are things, of course, that they don't really show you a lot on TV, right? Because it takes the glamour out of the job. And the truth of the matter is we're not walking around in high heels looking our best with our makeup on and our hair done.
01:02
We are sweating, dodging insects. We may go home smelling like a decomposed body. And sometimes we forget because we're so used to it. I know I've gone into a scene before where the body's been there for a couple of days.
01:22
It's decomposing. The smell is bad. They may be covered in flies, gnats, maggots. I'm covered in deep sweat and stench and have walked into a restaurant and stood in line for a sandwich, forgetting completely how I smell and where I just came from.
01:46
And everyone is looking at me like I'm crazy because I smell hideous. And we just forget and we get so used to it. And it's something that we deal with on a daily basis. I guess one thing that gets me is how quickly the flies actually lay eggs and hatch and reproduce.
02:09
In a short period of time, if someone is in a house deceased, it doesn't take long for there to be a huge amount of flies. So a fly only lives 15 to 30 days and every time they lay eggs, they lay about 150 at a time.
02:33
So they also can lay five to six batches of 150 eggs every few days. And once those hatch to a maggot in about a day, they can reproduce after two to three days. And so that's how quickly they're going to accumulate in a scene that's closed off.
02:55
they're going to lay eggs in moist areas. So they're going to lay eggs around the eyes, inside the nose, around the mouth. And fly eggs look like small pieces of rice. I can remember when I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that every time a fly landed, it laid an egg.
03:13
So it was like once it landed on your food, it laid an egg on your food. And if you ate it, you were going to have fly eggs in your stomach. I can just remember that story. It used to mortify me. So I would take every precaution to keep flies off of my food when I was a kid, which is not true.
03:31
Now I know that is not true, but it haunted me as a child. I have been to scenes where there are so many flies inside a home that the flies cover the window completely and look like a black curtain. And in many cases, that's how someone knows that someone is in a house deceased is because they see flies on the inside of a window and they're not answering their door.
03:56
So you come to the conclusion that something's not right and call the police at which time they come to do a welfare check and then find someone that's been deceased in their house for several days or even weeks.
04:08
So when we move a body that's covered in flies and gnats, they're going to scatter. Many times I have moved a body over because that's part of what we do is look at the body for trauma, which is difficult to see on a decomposed body by the way, but we do look and the gnats are going to scatter and fly everywhere.
04:31
Low and behold, you take a deep breath and a little gnat goes right up your nose. So that's happened to me many times. I have also taken a deep breath in a scene where there are quite a few flies and actually swallowed a fly before.
04:48
And let me tell you, there is nothing worse than a fly moving around in the back of your throat, wiggling, and you can't get it down or up. I mean, you cough like crazy. You're trying to drink stuff to wash it down.
05:00
It just stays there. And it's so annoying. And you're like, I'm pretty sure I need antibiotics because this fly has been on a body and is not exactly what I wanted to have for lunch. So these are things that we do deal with on a daily basis.
05:18
Snakes, many times, you know, we're outside, we're in a field, we're in the woods. People sometimes go in a remote area to commit suicide. And in those cases, we deal with spiders and snakes and sometimes bugs that we don't even recognize.
05:37
Those are just things that, like I said, they don't ever show you on TV because it would take the glamour out of the job, right? They don't want you to see the investigators sweating because death investigation is exciting and everybody wants to do it.
05:52
And if you show them that, they're not. really going to love the idea as much as they did before. But that's something that we do deal with on a daily basis. And of course, we many times will wear masks and those types of things to prevent snorting the occasional gnat or swallowing flies, but I'm personally claustrophobic.
06:14
So I don't like wearing masks or having anything cover my face. So I'm the worst about not doing that, which is the reason that I have swallowed flies and snorted gnats. Mosquitoes are another thing that we deal with almost daily.
06:32
In Texas, sometimes they can be the size of pterodactyls. You feel like they're going to carry you off because they swarm and, of course, they love me. I like to wear dark colors. And of course, they love dark colors.
06:45
They'll start biting you on a scene. And it just seems like they're really hard to keep off of you. And we have tried all kinds of things to try and keep from coming home looking like a giant well. But in a lot of cases, there's just no way to really avoid them.
07:03
Flies love me. I can remember years ago when my oldest daughter was in the Peace Corps and I went to visit her in Nairobi. And while I was there, I got really, really sick. I felt like I had the flu.
07:19
I was short of breath, coughing, and just felt terrible. I'd only been there for a couple of days. And I was pretty sure that I had come down with something, but I didn't know what. I had been bit by a mosquito when I first got there, but it hadn't really been long enough for me to exhibit symptoms of malaria.
07:38
But I did go to a doctor. I remember it cost me, I think, $3 to see a doctor in Nairobi. And he did a finger stick and told me to come back in 30 minutes. And lo and behold, I had tested positive for malaria.
07:56
So that is, I mean, I haven't had to deal with some of the diseases that the mosquitoes spread here in Texas, like West Nile, haven't had to deal with that, thank goodness, but malaria was not pleasant.
08:10
And especially when you're in a third world country, it's a little scary, not feeling well and not knowing what kind of medical care you would receive if you had to go to a clinic or a hospital in an emergency situation.
08:25
But breathing was difficult. So bugs love me. So I don't know why. But that is something that we will always have to deal with. It certainly doesn't deter us from doing our job. But sometimes it can certainly slow us down.
08:41
But it doesn't keep us from doing what we need to do. So I just thought I would share with you some of the things that we deal with that you may not see on TV. Many times I've stood on an ant pile not even knowing that I'm standing on one and felt the burn of ant bites on my feet, again, part of the job, but not pleasant.
09:06
So I would appreciate any ideas on how to avoid getting bit or stung. I know that I have tried all kinds of organic things and it's just hard to get them to stay off of you because there are so many of them, which to us is just another day in the life of a death investigator.
09:31
Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies. If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple Podcast. This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
09:46
Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.