Body farm
A body farm is a research facility where decomposition of humans and animals can be studied in a variety of settings. The initial facility was conceived by anthropologist William M. Bass in 1981 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Bass was interested in studying the decomposition of a human corpse from the time of death to the time of decay. The aim was to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information such as the timing and circumstances of death from human remains. Body farm research is of particular interest in forensic anthropology and related disciplines, and has applications in the fields of law enforcement and forensic science. Numerous purposes exist for these research facilities, yet their main purpose is to study and form an understanding of the decompositional changes that occur with the human body. By placing the bodies outside to face the elements, researchers are able to get a better understanding of the decomposition process. This research is then used for medical, legal and educational purposes. Following the outdoor research, skeletal remains are cleaned and curated in permanent known skeletal collections open for research. Such collections are critical for testing and developing new identification methods.
United States
Eight such facilities exist across the United States, as far south as sub-tropical Florida and as far north as Marquette, Michigan, at Northern Michigan University. The research facility operated by Texas State University at Freeman Ranch is the largest at 26 acres.Rick Schwein, head of the FBI office in Asheville, North Carolina, finds use in the body farms, saying the information from them can be used at many different levels and thus is valuable from a scientific perspective. There have been proposals to open body farms in other locations in the United States. Few of these have been successful as yet; for example, a facility in Las Vegas was proposed in 2003 but was unable to secure funding.
University of Tennessee
The original body farm is the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility located a few miles from downtown on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville, Tennessee, behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center. It was first started in late 1980 by forensic anthropologist William M. Bass as a facility for the study of the decomposition of human remains. Bass became head of the university's anthropology department in 1971, and as official state forensic anthropologist for Tennessee he was frequently consulted in police cases involving decomposed human remains. Since no facilities existed that specifically studied decomposition, in 1981 he opened the department's first body farm.It consists of a wooded plot, surrounded by a razor wire fence. At any one time there will be a number of bodies placed in different settings throughout the facility and left to decompose. The bodies are exposed in a number of ways in order to provide insights into decomposition under varying conditions. Some of the conditions students studied were situations such as a body being locked in the trunk of a car, or being submerged under water, which provided some factual and data driven knowledge to help in many forensic cases. Observations and records of the decomposition process are kept, including the sequence and speed of decomposition and the effects of insect activity. The human decomposition stages that are studied begin with the fresh stage, then the bloat stage, then decay, and finally the dry stage.
More than a hundred bodies are donated to the facility every year. Some individuals have pre-registered themselves; the others are donated by their families or by a medical examiner. Perhaps the most famous person to donate his body for study was the anthropologist Grover Krantz, as described by his colleague David Hunt at the Smithsonian.
The University of Tennessee Body Farm is also used in the training of law enforcement officers in scene-of-crime skills and techniques.
Western Carolina University
The Forensic Osteology Research Station is located at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, and is the second human decomposition research facility to open in the United States. It was opened in 2007, and is run by WCU's Forensic Anthropology program on a small plot on the rural mountain campus. It consists of a plot of land in the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The facility has also been used for cadaver dog training.Texas State University
A Forensic Anthropology Research Facility was commissioned by the Texas State University-San Marcos Department of Anthropology and is under the direction of Dr. Michelle Hamilton, a former student of Dr. Bill Bass. The forensic research facility is fully operational and is part of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State. The forensic facility has received a financial donation of over $100,000 from a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Texas State University, and has started construction of an adjoining million-dollar lab to augment the facility. The development of this facility has been possible through the efforts of Dr. Jerry Melbye, DABFA.Prior to the selection of the location, objections by local residents and the nearby San Marcos Municipal Airport stalled the plan. But on February 12, 2008, Texas State University announced that its Freeman Ranch, off County Road 213 northwest of San Marcos, would be the site of the facility.
The vultures that originally created problems for the location of the research facility have provided a new area of study on the effect of vulture scavenging on human decomposition.
A new body is brought to the facility every five or six months. The bodies typically come from Texas hospitals, funeral homes, or medical examiners' offices; from there, they are strapped to a gurney, loaded into cargo vans, and brought to the ranch, where researchers and student volunteers begin their research on the corpses.
The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility is a human decomposition research laboratory where questions related to outdoor crime scenes and decomposition rates for human remains under various topographical and climate conditions are investigated. The FARF serves as a resource for students of forensic anthropology as well as state and national law enforcement agencies. The work conducted here will have a direct impact on law enforcement and forensic investigations throughout the state of Texas, and beyond.
The Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State accepts body donations for scientific research purposes under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. To date they have received 150 bodies, with up to 200 more donations planned. The areas of research conducted with donated bodies will include reconstructing the postmortem interval to determine time since death and related studies in human decomposition. The overall aim of this type of research is to assist law enforcement agents and the medico-legal community in their investigations.
While practical restraints currently limit the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility to only around seven acres in the Texas Hill Country, Freeman Ranch has about available. Freeman Ranch is a working ranch that also serves as an educational model for ranch management. It is an area of land for educational outreach and research. Researchers and students visit the ranch and participate in educational activities and projects. Researchers and students are allowed to conduct experiments and studies at the ranch, including forensic anthropology.
Sam Houston State University
The Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility is a state-of-the-art research and training facility designed to advance academic and technical knowledge in the application of forensic science disciplines to crime scenes and criminal activities. The facility's predominant focus of study is the application of forensic sciences to the human body and the vast amount of evidence that can be gleaned from the careful recognition, collection, and preservation of that evidence. The facility is recognized by the Anatomical Board of Texas as a willed-body donor facility, and accepts human body donations for the purposes of scientific research.The facility trains students, law enforcement officials, academicians and forensic specialists.
The facility is located within the Pineywoods Environmental Research Laboratory at Sam Houston State University, a parcel of land adjacent to the Sam Houston National Forest. One acre of maximum-security fencing surrounds the outdoor research facility with an additional of minimum security reserved for other types of forensic training such as search and recovery maneuvers. Contained within the outdoor facility are a variety of various environmental conditions, including a fluvial environment. Web cams are located within the outdoor facility to monitor timing of various post-mortem activities from on and off-campus computers.
The building is designed as a morgue with cooler and freezer units, modern morgue equipment and tools and digital radiograph and microscope capabilities.
The environment in southeast Texas is quite different from the environment of East Tennessee. East Tennessee's mean annual temperature is 67°F. The Huntsville, TX area's mean annual temperature is 75°F. This difference in temperature from other facilities produces different decomposition results.
Southern Illinois University
The Complex for Forensic Anthropology Research was opened at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in October 2010 by Gretchen R. Dabbs and D. C. Martin to examine the rate and pattern of decomposition in the unique environment of Southern Illinois by working with pigs as human proxies. CFAR is an approximately facility with the lowest average temperature, highest average wind speed, second lowest elevation, most acidic soil, and worst soil drainage compared to other facilities at the time of its founding. The geographic differences between CFAR and other established facilities have been proven to heavily influence the rate and pattern of decomposition due to vulture scavenging. The first human donation was accepted at CFAR in January 2012.Researchers at CFAR attempt to mimic clandestine body disposal situations and understand how the process of decomposition is altered by those postmortem treatments and how the postmortem treatment can be identified after skeletonization.
The faculty and staff of CFAR also participate in forensic anthropology consultations and provide training seminars for local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.