Pollen analysis reveals murder season

Pollen analysis is well established in palaeogeographical research1,2, but it remains an underused resource in forensic science3,4. So far it has been used to investigate only one reported case of murder5, but has not to our knowledge been used to determine the time of death. We examined a common grave containing 32 murder victims, and used pollen analysis to establish that the murders must have occurred in the summer of an unknown year. A knowledge of the season of the murder could help to determine who was responsible for the murders.