Body farm
The Body Farm, or the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility is a facility located near Knoxville, Tennessee. This facility studies human decomposition that takes place after death.
The facility was founded by anthropologist Dr. William Bass after he found that there wasn't any such facilities to study decomposition. The facility is on a wooded plot contained in a fence topped off with razor wire. A number of bodies are laid out in this three acre plot, a few miles south of Knoxville, near the University's medical center. The bodies come from different sources. Some bodies are from the medical examiner's office which had laid there unclaimed. Other people choose to donate their bodies to the Body Farm. Over 300 people have done so.
These bodies are situated in a number of ways. Some are left out in the open. Others are buried in shallow graves. Some bodies are entombed in vaults. Some are even left in cars. Scientists then do regular studies to gain an understanding of human decay.
Law enforcement officials and medical examiners have found the work done at the Body Farm to be valuable. This is mainly through helping medical examiners to develop a better idea of what the actual time of death was, known as forensics. The Federal Bureau of Investigation holds a training course at the Body Farm where agents dig up bodies as part of a crime scene simulation.
The Body Farm was the inspiration for a Patricia Cornwell novel of the same name and is the subject of Death's Acre by Jon Jefferson and Dr. William Bass.