Experiments with dead swine help forensic entomologists crack Canada's biggest cases.  Sherah VanLaerhoven looks like she's ladling punch at a party as she straddles the rotting carcass of a pig, scooping up mittfuls of maggots for a group of police officers.

But these repulsive little creatures don't bother the scientist – in fact, they seem to amuse her.

"These are the meat and potatoes of what I do for a living," she says, and giggles. "Ooooh! Maybe I didn't mean it exactly like that."

To do her job, VanLaerhoven relies on officers like the ones she's training today. They must nimbly catch the right bugs, document the body parts they've been eating, keep just the right amount alive for her to examine.

One of only two forensic entomologists in Canada, she's been recruited regularly by government, police, crown attorneys and defence lawyers, to help untangle some of this country's most notorious crimes.

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