Forensic medical officer is a heavy and unattractive work for most people. It happens all the time that you have to face the incomplete and smelly corpses. Out of our imagination, Mark Benecke is a unique figure in this field, and by achieving a great idea in his work, Dr. Mark becomes a world-renowned forensic entomologist. Mark Benecke was born in 1970, in Bavaria, Germany. After receiving a Dr. rer. medic. at Cologne University in 1997, he worked in the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Manhattan, New York from 1997–1999. As of 2008, he works internationally on forensic cases as a freelance expert witness. He also teaches at various police academies and acts as a visiting professor to universities in Germany, England,Vietnam, Colombia, and the Philippines.
*© Photo by Rocksau Pictures
With his highly specialized knowledge of bugs, Mark has a lot experiences to help with the murder cases and prove the murder guilty by the examination of insects such as maggots and bluebottles in rotting flesh, and determine the cause and time of the dearth. There are seldom people know about forensic entomology in Taiwan, not even to mention the maggots which everyone hates to touch.
Why does Mark want to study it? Mark thinks that he couldn’t be further from the truth without his examination of maggots, and these small and creeping maggots become the detectives for Mark, and show him the unspeakable secret for the dead body. Mark mentioned that when he worked in the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, New York, other colleagues always think he is a weird guy from German. That’s because Mark always spent a lot of time to study maggots even out of work, and sometimes, a large number of maggots will drop out from the dead body, and Mark could still focus on them without feeling any disgusting. Right now, Mark Benecke already becomes the authority on forensic entomology, but Mark still works very hard on any investigation, he realizes the importance of his job, and no matter what kind of insects he needs to study, he will do his best all the time!
Besides those maggots, Mark is also a big tattoo fan since he was young, he got his first tattoo (a lizard) on his shoulder about 20 years ago, and Mark had the lizard surrounded by a super weird tribal tattoo later. The meaning of the tattoo is not the most important thing for him, Mark thinks that tattoo is a very natural thing for him, and it’s also a very good way for him to mark life experiences. Mark is invited to be a visiting professor at international universities, and by the chance of travelling around the world, Mark said that he would like get more tattoo in other cities if he finds good tattooist, how about Taiwan? Possible!