Body Farms

A body farm is a research center where scientists study the human decomposition process. These facilities provide an environment whereby death and decay can be scientifically examined by replicating various settings. Body farms are an important component to better understanding the human decay process and how particular environments may affect the deceased's body. For example, scientists may reenact a murder victim left in a body of water for days prior to discovery or a victim burned posthumously. By studying the process by which bodies decompose when left to the elements, it is possible to accurately determine the postmortem interval in real time and recover any evidence of foul play. Thus, the data collected at body farms provide crime scene investigation teams and forensic anthropologists with important information regarding decomposition and proper techniques for collecting evidence from a victim's remains and the surrounding crime scene area. Because bringing a perpetrator to justice often requires that investigators place the criminal at the scene, the body farm staff are primarily interested in accurately determining the time of death based upon the state of the body upon discovery.

The first body farm was established in 1981 by Dr. William Bass, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Located on a 2.5-acre plot of land behind the University of Tennessee's Medical Center, “the Body Farm,” as it is known around the world, is a fenced-in wooded site where Bass, now retired, and his graduate students place dozens of bodies and carefully record the rate of decomposition and the bacteria and insect activity for each of the death [Page 112]scenarios. Once it becomes skeletonized, the staff then removes the remains and stores the bones for further research. Each body is systematically labeled with a set of numbers that corresponds with the deceased's arrival at the laboratory. For example, the fifth body donated in 1990 would thereafter be referred to as “5–90,” even after skeletonization has occurred, in an effort to protect the identity of the donors. Bodies used for study at the University of Tennessee's body farm come from two sources. Staff members either take possession of unclaimed bodies left at the state medical examiner's office or, alternatively, people make arrangements prior to their death to donate their bodies. Each year between 30 and 50 people apply to donate their remains to Tennessee's body farm.

The body farm founder was a forensic anthropologist. Along with his role in founding the University of Kentucky's Forensic Anthropology Center in 1971, Dr. Bass served as a technical expert for many local and federal investigations. Body farms have now become an important tool for criminal investigators and lawyers because, prior to 1971, no one could determine with any certainty if a decomposed body was indeed a crime victim if there wasn't a bullet hole or other obvious evidence of struggle. Bass and his research staff have collected hundreds of remains, most of which have been left to skeletonize naturally after being exposed to the elements. This database of information is available to law enforcement and has allowed investigation teams to systematically compare their case to remains found in similar situations. The body farm's ability to re-create the decomposition process in a controlled environment has aided many criminal investigations and helped scientifically determine whether or not a body was indeed a victim.

...