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Show TheSalt Lake Tribune NATION Zi Thursday, June15, 2000 Al5 -. Convicted Murderer Looks to Mummified Maggots for Salvation From Death Row an eeeeee te ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX — A man awaiting execution on Arizona’s death row is pinning one of his final attempts at salvation on a bunch ofunlikely saviors: maggots.” Anthony Spears, 41, convicted of murdering Rereqen NaySaigetongprackegs Aphorspaiaely has maintained his innocence since his 1992 arrest. Eight years later, he’s sticking to his story — and hoping a study of the maggots found on her-body can save him. Beaulieu’s body was found Jan. 19, 1992, at a shooting range east of Phoenix. She had been shot in the back ofthe head. A medical examiner put the murder date at Jan. 4. However, forensic entomologist David Faulkner — who recently examined the flesh-eating maggots found Roaches Have High-Tech Survival Secret * KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE PRINCETON,N.J. — Ever wonder how cockroaches to scurry away just as you get ready tosai ? Scientists at NEC Research Institute have found the answer. Roaches have an organ that humans — and most other creatures — lack. It’s a high-performance windindicator thatsticks outofits hind end and can pick up even the subtlest changes in wind speed and directioimn. “Roaches have survived for 327 million years,” said Hanan Davidowitz, a physicist and lead author of a paper on cockroach-escape artistry published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Physicist Dima Rinberg and Davidowitz pinned the creatures in wax,attached electrodesto their neurons, stuck them in a wind tunnel and analyzed the complex pattern of their nerve impulses. What they discovered was an organ consisting of two hornshaped appendages, each covered by about 200 microscopic hairs called cerci. The cerci pick up minute changes in wind patterns caused by an approaching bird or frog, for example, or a human armed with any numberof swatting devices. The roach can sense the direction of danger early enough to make a quick getaway. Still, there’s ordinary wind blowing all the time, “and the cockroach is not always running forits life,” said Davidowitz. RoachTest: To figure out how the roach could be so sensitive to the subtleties of wind, the two researchers needed to do further study. In his research laboratory Wednesday, Rinberg demonstrated how it was done. First, he waxed a stunned cockroach to a little board before it came to. Then he snipped off the legs and wings and mounted the cockroach, now awake and wiggling its antennae, on a small platform. There, a miniature wind tunnel blew air onits trapped body. The wind tunnel was set up so the scientists could precisely control the direction and speed of the wind. To monitor the insect’s response to differing wind patterns, they attached minute electrodes to the neurons that the roach-uses to send signals from the cerci up the nervous system. The impulses showed that the roach nervous system ambient wind conditions and senses when anything disturbs them. The characteristic of the wind that seemed to affect the roach the mostwas the frequency ofchanges . in wind velocity — whether gusts and lulls blew by in quick succession, or rose and fell more slowly and steadily. An approaching predator creates a gust that holds steadier than the ordinary turbulence of the wind. The roach senses the wind direction through the relative response of different hairs. That way it knows which way to jump. Practical Application? crushed and in Beaulieu’s clothing — says entomologist, Rich Merritt, is scheduled to view the the date ofdeath is more likely between Jan. 10 and12. maggot samples next week. The samples were not studied during Spears’ 1992 Spears was at homenear San Diego on those dates. Faulkner said the maggots couldn’t have been trial. Faulkner and Merritt were hired to look at much older than 10 days when they were mummified Beaulieu’s case by friends ofSpears’ wife, Janet — who married Spears after serving as the foreman ofthejury in clothing removed from the victim shortly after her body was found. That would rule out Jan.4 as a possi- that convicted him. Though the jury unanimously convicted Spears of ble date for the murder unless the body was frozen at some point, he said-~ Waitt ~ first-degree murder, she said she wasneverconvinced Studying the life span and developmentof insects and was “beat up mentally” by other jurors who were found at crime scenes can help determinethe date of a tired and wanted herto makea final decision. Lawyers for Spears will have to submit the new victim’s death. Faulkner said it takes only moments maggottheory to thetrial court if they hope to win his for the insects to appear after someonedies. Hehas studied insects at crime scenes since 1981 freedom. Although Spears was not in Arizona when and is the head of the entomology departmentat the San Diego Natural History Museum.A secondforensic Faulknersays Beaulieu was killed, he was in the state ‘There is one immediate benefit of the stady: Davidowitz and Rinberg have confirmed with science what some dwellers of cheap kill a cockroach is to foil its wind indicator. And for that, the weapon of choice is the vacuum cleaner. He had flown to Phoenix on Jan. 2 with a one-way airline ticket purchased by the 39-year-old Beaulieu, and he brought a 9 mm handgun with him,according to court documents. A shell casing determined to be from that gun was found among the thousandsof others at the shooting range a week and a half after Beaulieu’s body was found. Spears drove back te California on Jan; +in truek he bought from Beaulieu. San Diego authorities found a notarized title from Beaulieu in the glove compartment. 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