Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
17 August 2011
The Body Farm:
Where Cadavers Rot for Science
The University of Tennessee operates a two-
outdoor site where human bodies are left
to decompose naturally to aid forensic investigators
The Body Farm is not a place for the squeamish or those with weak stomachs. The area may have as many as 50 corpses on the ground at any given time slowly decomposing and giving off the sickening odour of putrefaction.
Studying the Process of Decomposition
In 1971, anthropologist Dr. William M. Bass began setting up the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
In 1981, the university opened the Body Farm where corpses are laid out in an open woodland area. Since then, other body farms have been opened in Texas and North Carolina.
The goal is to study the decomposition process of a human body in natural settings. On October 31, 2000 CNN reported the bodies are “stuffed into car trunks, left lying in the sun or shade, buried in shallow graves, covered with brush, or submerged in ponds.”
The data gathered from studying the decay in minute detail helps police investigators identify crime victims and how they died, determine time of death, and provides a host of vital information to pathologists.
Insects Give Clues to Time of Death
In a National Geographic video of the Tennessee body farm Dr. Murray Marks explains some of the processes.
Flies and maggots are important in giving clues to how long a body has been dead.
The first flies will arrive within half an hour of death and begin their work.
“What they look for are the orifices.” says Dr. Marks, “The nose, the mouth, the ears, the ground/body interface where it’s going to be shaded.”
Once the flies have found the right spot they lay eggs that, within a day, hatch into maggots that begin feeding on the corpse’s flesh. The size of the maggots tells researchers how much time has passed since the person died. A maggot 15 millimetres long has been feeding for about a week.
Studying insect life cycles in this way helps investigators establish time of death.
Body Farm Teaches Investigators
An important part of the work at the Forensic Anthropology Center is teaching police
and other university researchers about investigative techniques. BBC News reports
(July 3, 2005) that the faculty holds “Intensive 10-
The British news organization quotes Dr. Bass as saying “We have certainly helped a lot of people, solved a lot of crimes, and put some bad people in prison.”
Most of the bodies used at the facility are donated but some are unclaimed cadavers from city morgues.
Facility only for Experts
The Body Farm is surrounded by a high wooden fence and razor wire to keep out those with a ghoulish bent and to protect the privacy of the residents.
The institution makes a point of noting that it does not allow public visits even though it gets plenty of requests, a couple even from cub scout groups (Sorry, Mrs. Carmody’s Grade Four field trip to the Body Farm has been cancelled).
There was a spike in requests for tours after the publication of Patricia Cornwell’s 1995 book The Body Farm was published.
The book’s central character, consulting forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta, undertakes a grisly investigation at the University of Tennessee’s Body Farm.
In 2004, Dr. Bass himself published a non-
Image credit
John Talbot
Sources
The Body Farm.
“Pastoral Putrefaction down on the Body Farm.” CNN, October 31, 2000.
“Body Farm.” National Geographic.
“Life on Tennessee’s ‘Body Farm.’ ” BBC News, July 3, 2005.
© Canada and the World, August 2011
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Determining the time of death in murder investigations is important because as Dr. Bass told CNN, “People will have alibis for certain time periods, and if you can determine death happened at another time, it makes a difference in the court case.”