What's Fresh at the Body Farm?

Television series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order have brought many forensic techniques utilized by law enforcement into popular culture. Fans can sit back each week and watch as their favorite characters piece together the puzzles at a variety of crime scenes. Usually these stories are wrapped up nicely in an hour, and everyone goes home happy in the end. In the real forensic world however, the answers do not always come so easy and rarely are discovered in an hour's time. This begs the question then where do crime scene investigators turn to help in finding the answers to solve a given crime? Well if it is the field of forensic anthropology, the answer can often be found at one place - the Body Farm.

The Body Farm is actually the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility. It earned the name "Body Farm" after writer Patricia Cornwell coined the term for her 1994 novel of the same name. Cornwell and many other crime novelists continue to use the Body Farm as a research tool for the forensic techniques they describe in their books.

Started in 1971 by anthropologist Dr. William M. Bass with only one body and a small area of land, the facility now features three acres and up to 40 decomposing bodies at a given time. Dr. Bass came up with the idea when he realized there were no facilities of this nature to study how the human body decomposes.

When asked about the Body Farm's origins, Dr. Bass has this to say, "There was nothing much in the literature. So I asked the dean if I could have a small piece of land to put bodies on. That was the beginning of what has been 29 years of trying to figure out what happens to people. I think all we've done is scratch the surface."

Human Bodies can now be seen decomposing in a variety of methods. Some are buried underground while others are sealed up in vaults. Still others are left in car trunks or simply out in the open along a forested path. The ways these bodies decompose provide invaluable data for forensic teams across the country.

The role of insects in the decomposition process has provided researchers at the Body Farm with critical information which can in turn be used to help solve the all improtant time of death.

According to Dr. Bass, "Most of the characteristics used to determine length of time since death are determined by insect activity. Occasionally, there will be no flies in a house, and maybe it's two weeks since the time of death before flies finally find a way in, and then there are two different rates of decay."

The FBI makes good use of the Body Farm as well. Every February they send a team of researchers down to dig up bodies that have been specially prepared by the Farms workers. The Agents will dig up the bodies and try to discover the evidence workers have planted. The FBI uses this method to help train their Agents not only how to work a crime scene but how to recognize valuable evidence for what it is.

The bodies themselves come from different places. Some are simply unclaimed bodies which have been left at different medical examiners' officers. Most however, actually come from donations. This is to say that people can donate their bodies to science and specifically ask to have their remains given to the Body Farm.

In their article "Pastoral purification down on the Body Farm" Michele Dula Braum and Toria Tolley report, "Some 300 people have willed their bodies to the facility, with more coming with each fresh wave of publicity."

In 2006 a new "Body Farm" was opened in North Carolina as part Western Carolina University. This facility, called the Western Carolina Human Identification Laboratory, is run by the Western Carolina University Forensic Anthropology department The key difference between this Body Farm, and the original one is that it utilizes acres of land in the rural mountains. This brings a whole new perspective to the decomposition process that can now be studied. The Western Carolina Human Identification Laboratory is also used as a training site for cadaver dogs.

The need for the study of human decomposition is not only found in the United States. It is quickly becoming a global necessity as forensic techniques become more specialized. There is a researcher in India trying to create her own version of the Body Farm. At this point researcher, Roma Kahn, has only been able to study the decomposition of cattle, but hopes to be able to create a Human Anthropological Facility in the near future.

The "Body Farm" has been featured in many popular novels and television series over the years. It has gained a rather infamous following among fans of these media genres. Its real importance however, lies not in its place in popular culture, but in the real life study of forensic anthropology and namely human decomposition. The invaluable information gleaned by researchers has helped solve crimes across this country, and that is why Body Farms and the men and women who maintain them should be recognized.

Michele Dula Braum and Toria Tolley. October 31, 2000. "Putrefacation down on the Body Farm". Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/31/body.farm/index.html

Wikipedia. "Body Farm". Retrived March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Farm