The University of Tennessee is the world leader in the development of forensic medicine. Much of their research is done on the Body Farm, a fenced tracks of land with a few buildings where a variety of donated bodies can be left to rot under a variety of conditions.
http://www.hbo.com/autopsy/forensic/the_body_farm.html
The term "Body Farm" gained great popularity when Patricia Cornwell used it as a book title for one of her murder mysteries.
Down the road, William Bass, the original body farmer, visualizes Body Farm research facilities scattered over the United States and the rest of the world. Obviously climatic conditions are different in Tennessee, Arizona, the Mississippi Delta, New England, Montana and all the other states. Decomposition varies according to climate and terrain and time of year and whether or not the body is buried or not, inside or outside, clothed or naked.
Originally the bodies came from unclaimed cadavers but more and more people are thinking of the Body Farm when they donate their remains to medical research. After her funeral, my aunt did her stint at the Body Farm and when Bass and his researchers had finished with her, she was cremated and returned to the family.
Dag--
Do you have a potential murder victim you would like to donate to the Body Farm?
Exciting!
