Body farm
[1][2] 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.
[5] The research facility operated by Texas State University at Freeman Ranch is the largest at 26 acres (10.52 hectares).
In the United Kingdom, research has focused on non-human remains, mainly pigs due to their similarity to humans.
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.
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.
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.
[12] 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.
[13] The University of Tennessee Body Farm is also used in the training of law enforcement officers in scene-of-crime skills and techniques.
Prior to the selection of the location, objections by local residents and the nearby San Marcos Municipal Airport (owing to concerns about circling vultures) stalled the plan.
[17] 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 Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State accepts body donations for scientific research purposes under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
[6] 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.
Web cams are located within the outdoor facility to monitor timing of various post-mortem activities from on and off-campus computers.
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 faculty and staff of CFAR also participate in forensic anthropology consultations and provide training seminars for local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
[30] The Forensic Investigation Research Station (FIRS) is part of Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, under the direction of Dr. Melissa Connor.
[31] Its location is at a high altitude (4,750 feet (1,450 m) AMSL) and receives an average of 8.6 inches (22 cm) of rain a year, allowing for the study of decomposition in an arid environment.
The FORT was created by Erin H. Kimmerle, Executive Director of the Institute of Forensic Anthropology & Applied Science (IFAAS) in 2016.
It was established as research has demonstrated that differing environmental conditions mean that the findings of body farm analysis in the United States are frequently not relevant to Australia.
[40] The facility is the first of its kind to study the rate of natural human decomposition in the context of the colder, humid continental northern climate of Canada.
Pigs are commonly studied but they are only useful in this field to a certain extent since they don't carry the same illnesses or obtain the same injuries as humans that affect cause of death or how the body decomposes.
[44] The body farms will reject a donation if the person had been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Original plans to build the USF facility on Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office property in Lithia were cancelled in April 2015 over concerns from nearby residents about possible smells and groundwater contamination.
[47] All questions and areas of focus which help narrow the window of possible death during investigative research on dead and decomposing bodies in trials.
Focusing on the impact and importance of the microbe environments inside the human body and in the soil as different enzymes leach out during decomposition, DeBruyn and her team have helped narrow down two potential bacterial organisms Bacteroides and Lactobacillus which offer the potential for consistent cycles and rates during decomposition.
The questions Bass asks pertain to such decomposition traits as was the body in the shade or sunlight; was there water involved; or even the different stages associated with death and dying which can help paint part of the forensic picture.
