Advances in forensic entomology in missing persons investigations

In the last century, several approaches and techniques have been used for human identification: from macroscopic (anthropological studies) to microscopic (fingerprints) and molecular (DNA characterization) analyses. In the last decades, other disciplines like entomology and botany have provided important information suitable for human identification. In this chapter, the entomological approach is presented in order to underline the potential of this discipline in missing persons investigations. Because of their number and their presence in all the environments, insects play important roles in human life and are useful as well in order to reconstruct the peri- and postmortem events.