Body Farm
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A Body Farm is used in the study of forensic anthropology: the study of human decomposition that occurs after death. Various forensic disciplines benefit from the studies done through a Body Farm, among them law enforcement, medical examiners and crime scene investigation. The research assists examiners in developing a better understanding and developing better methods of determining what the actual time of death was. The Federal Bureau of Investigation holds training courses at the University of Tennessee Body Farm, in order to expose agents to crime scene simulations where they have to dig up bodies. There are two such facilities in the United States.
[edit] Facilities in the United States
[edit] University of Tennessee - Knoxville
The original "Body Farm" is the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility located a few miles south of Knoxville, Tennessee, behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The facility was founded by anthropologist Dr. William M. Bass in 1971, after he found that no such facilities existed that specifically studied decomposition.
It consists of a six acre (12,140 m²) wooded plot, surrounded by a razor wire fence. A number of bodies, originating from various sources, are scattered throughout the area. Some of the cadavers have laid unclaimed at the medical examiner's office, while over 300 people have voluntarily donated their bodies to the Body Farm. The bodies are exposed in a number of ways in order to provide insights into decomposition under varying conditions: some are left out in the open, some get buried in shallow graves or entombed in vaults, while some are even left in car trunks.
[edit] Western Carolina University
The other facility in the United States, very similar to the first, is located at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina and is part of the Western Carolina Human Identification Laboratory. It was opened in 2006 and is run by WCU's Forensic Anthropology program on a few acres set aside on newly purchased land across from the rural mountain campus. The facility studies decomposition in the western North Carolina mountain habitat and is also used in cadaver dog training.
[edit] Popular Culture
The original UT Body Farm was the inspiration for a Patricia Cornwell novel of the same name (ISBN 0-425-14762-2), and is the also subject of the nonfiction Death's Acre by Dr. William M. Bass and Jon Jefferson (ISBN 0-399-15134-6).
The UT Body Farm has also appeared in several television shows including The Dead Zone (Season 4 Episode 10) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Season 2 Episode 15).
A similar forensic setup appeared in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (Episode 45). Though located in New York, the "Farm" effectively duplicated the procedures used in the eponymous institution.
