If you can read this article without blowing chunks, crime-scene investigation might be the career for you!
SCHOOL OF THE DEAD
Imagine a three-acre forest littered with bodies—some in black plastic bags, some in cardboard boxes, some hidden in car trunks, and others simply lying on their backs with frozen eyes staring skyward. The whole place is surrounded by a razor-wire fence, not to keep the dead in, but to keep the living out. Creepy? Sure. Real? You bet! It’s the Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) of the University of Tennessee. It was nicknamed “The Body Farm” by the FBI, and it’s for students who study how the body decays.
Corpses have a lot to teach students: from the obvious—race, gender, and age—to the hidden—when and how a person died. It’s the kind of information police detectives and FBI agents need to solve murders. Each year about 45 corpses make ARF their final resting place, all in the name of forensic anthropology: the science of examining human remains to solve mysteries.
WORKING STIFFS
Exactly what happens to the body when a person dies? First, it begins to stiffen—that’s called rigor mortis. The stiffening lasts for the first 48 hours after death. The body also begins to cool, which is known as algor mortis. The body’s temperature drops about 1 degree Fahrenheit every hour after death until it matches the temperature around it. After three days, the body turns from green to purple to black. And then it starts to rot. Once that happens, crime-scene investigators look for other clues to how long the corpse has been dead. They start with…bugs.
STOP BUGGING ME!
Bugs help bodies decompose. As the body rots, bugs show up in a specific order, called insect succession. First, blowflies buzz in and start to eat the corpse’s body fat. Next, flesh flies arrive and lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, they become maggots. The maggots carry with them bacteria that settle in the abdomen, lungs, and skin of the corpse. Then beetles show up. They lay eggs, too. Other insects scurry over to feed on maggots and beetle larvae. By checking which bugs are on (or in) a body, scientists can tell just how long it has been there.
THE BODY BOUQUET
Dr. William Bass—who founded ARF in 1971—said that the body emits 450 chemicals as it decays. And each stage of decay has a unique smell. Bass has given the stages names, such as putrescine and cadaverine. Being able to sniff out the stage is important: It helps investigators pinpoint the time of death. With 45 bodies rotting, the stench at the body farm can get pretty strong. (Locals call the place “BARF.”) So how do investigators sniff out a single chemical? With a handheld electronic “nose” invented by an ARF student. The device uses aroma-scan technology developed for the food and wine industry and can sniff out the time of death by identifying the chemicals in a corpse.
SKULL AND BONES
It takes about a month for chemicals and bugs to liquefy a body. The corpse’s remaining tissue begins to melt into the ground, leaving only the skeletal remains and what’s called a volatile fatty acid stain. Once that happens, forensic scientists look to bones for clues. Another ARF scientist, Dr. Richard Jantz, developed a computer program that can determine the age, gender, race, and height of a skeleton. His software has been used to identify victims around the world and to provide evidence during criminal trials.
DYING TO GET IN
So, where does ARF get the bodies for the farm? People donate them at the rate of 100 a year. Bodies spend about two years at the farm. Then the bones are cleaned, labeled, and put into the William M. Bass collection, which now holds 1,000 specimens. Want to be sent to the body farm? Just contact the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. As of today, 2,750 people have donated their bodies to ARF. Just don’t forget to tell your family. “We will not fight your family for your body,” says ARF.