The body wasn't desiccated, Kimmy. They recovered some 180ml of fluid from the lung cavity IIRC. Unless they stuck her body in a drying oven and weighed her before and after, there is no telling how much moisture was still available.
Hands, foot, ears. Low fat/low water mass. those will mummify quickly.
The odd thing is no (or very few) insects in the braincase, It should have been infested with maggots but it wasn't.
And nobody has testified that the brain was mummified or dryed-out.
Based on the testimony of Faulkner and Haskell, what I think probably happened: The first wave of flies on day one laid eggs in the natural openings of the head (ears, nose, mouth) and even more so, in the urogenital region. As the ears and facial areas dried out on days two, three and four, the successive waves in the of flies primarily laid eggs in the urogenital area and in openings created by the coyotes. Therefore, at the autopsy, there was a "maggot mass" in the abdominal area, but not in the head. The maggots in the head area (too few in number to form a "mass") then migrated to the warmth of the maggot mass (which generates its own heat) in abdominal area when the body was placed in the morgue.
I like Haskell's explanation -- makes lots of sense:
A THE TESTIMONY OF ONE OF THE INVESTIGATORS SHOWED THAT THERE WERE SOME MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA. BUT WHEN DAVID FAULKNER WENT TO MAKE THE COLLECTION AT THE AUTOPSY, HE FOUND THAT THERE WERE NO MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA AND ONLY A CONSIDERABLE MAGGOT MASS IN THE ABDOMINAL AREA, PELVIC AREA OF THE REMAINS. MY CONCLUSION ON THAT WAS THE FACT THAT THERE WERE -- THE FLIES MOST LIKELY DID TRY TO LAY THEIR EGGS. MOTHER FLY TRIED TO LAY SOME EGGS IN THE HEAD AREA. AND A FEW OF THEM PROBABLY MADE IT. BUT WHEN THE BODY WENT INTO THE MORGUE AND COOLED DOWN, THE FEW MAGGOTS THAT WERE UP IN THE HEAD AREA DIDN'T HAVE THE MAGGOT MASS AGGREGATION TO GENERATE THIS HEAT THAT IS PRESENT. AND SO THEY PROBABLY WENT TO -- I THINK IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THEY TRIED TO SEEK WHERE THIS HEAT WAS PRESENT IN THIS PELVIC AREA WHERE THE MAGGOT MASS WAS PRESENT AND PROBABLY JOINED THEIR FELLOW MAGGOTS DOWN THERE.