University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility

Origins The Anthropological Research Facility, the first body farm created, was founded by Bass to generate information about what a corpse experiences when exposed to various experimental conditions. On this farm, human corpses yield to the elements of nature in many re-enacted scenes such as a car accident unseen for days, or a murder victim buried in a shallow grave. Prior to the creation of this institution, no advances had been made in the study of long-term body decomposition since the days of Song Ci in 13th century China. Many advances have been made about how to determine postmortem interval due to the Body Farm. In 1966, while teaching at the University of Kansas, Dr. Bass got the first idea for what would eventually become the Body Farm when he was asked if it was possible to determine the time of death of a decomposed cow. He determined that additional research was needed to accomplish this, and suggested that such knowledge could be determined by allowing a deceased cow to decompose in a field and observing the process. During the 1970s, donated and unclaimed bodies were macerated at an abandoned farm owned by the university. By the early 1980s when the "body farm" began, Bass had been in the position of head of the anthropology department at the University of Tennessee for a little over a decade, and had been appointed as the first state forensic anthropologist of Tennessee. As the state's forensic anthropologist, Bass was the official called on to determine cause and time of death. Early experiences In the fall of 1980, Bass began building his facility with a small group of students. Labeled "1-81" for confidentiality, Bass' first research subject provided information on the four stages that occur during the decomposition of a human body. Bass uses this naming convention, the designated number of the body and the year it was obtained, specifically for donated research subjects. Bass uses the reverse convention, "year-number", for the real world cases he works. Bill Rodriguez, one of Bass' graduate students, wrote his doctoral thesis on information gathered from this facility. During the facility's first year of operation, Rodriguez conducted a study where each day he observed and notated the presence of various insects on human cadavers and other information like changes in the body, and the timing of each of these. == Selected cases ==

Arson and entomology William Bass and his students did not isolate themselves through their own studies at the Body Farm; they also received forensic cases from law enforcement in which they could lend their expertise. One situation, case "91-23", involved arson upon a car on the border of Tennessee. After using other various forensics on the body including bone examinations, Bass and his team were able to identify the victim. The only other question was how long ago the victim had died; with this, they turned toward entomology, and more specifically, the life cycle of flies. Two of Bass' graduate students collected maggots and puparia on the scene and took them back to the Body Farm to study and after procedural observation and testing, the puparia appeared to be "charred" from the same fire that brought an end to the car and the body. This observation gave significant evidence that the man had been dead in his car for almost an entire life cycle of a blow-fly (approximately two weeks) before fire was even set to it. Because of this, Bass and his team were able to determine a more accurate time of death, which helped place authorities in the right direction in search of the murderer(s). Proving innocence In another case in 1981, a man named Alan Gell was granted an appeal to his earlier conviction for the murder of another man, Allen Ray Jenkins. Gell's attorney, Mary Pollard, needed assistance finding the postmortem interval on the victim in order to clear her client. With this, she turned to Murray Marks, one of the forensic anthropologists who worked at the Body Farm under Bass. Marks, a specialist in corpse decomposition, used a measurement known as "degree days", which utilizes daily temperature, along with crime scene photos of the maggots in order to determine an accurate range of dates for possible death. This information placed the time of death in such a range that it was impossible for Gell to be the true murderer of Jenkins. "The Big Bopper" A more recent case came to light in 2007 with Bass' agreement to exhume the body of the late J.P. Richardson, Jr, more famously known as "The Big Bopper". He was one of the three musicians that died in a plane crash in February 1959. His son, Jay Richardson, had never met his father and, knowing the strange controversies surrounding the plane crash, decided to contact Bass to see if he could gather any answers. Questions lingered as to whether or not Buddy Holly's gun found at the scene of the crash had been fired earlier or if Richardson had managed to survive the initial crash and simply died trying to get away. After exhumation of the body, Bass examined it using a portable X-ray system. After X-ray examination, Bass was able to come to a fairly certain conclusion: Richardson died immediately upon impact. He showed Jay Richardson the numerous breaks and fractures throughout his father's body, including his chest, skull, pelvis, and legs which inhibited ambulatory motion. All of the rumors and debates surrounding Richardson's death could finally be put to rest, and it was due largely in part to Bass and his extensive knowledge of forensic anthropology. == Program advocates ==

The collaboration of William M. Bass and Jon Jefferson began in Tennessee, but has spread across international boundaries. Their association, studies, and publications have led to many journalistic accomplishments, including some which have listed the authors under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass. This union of their names as one signifies the strength of their partnership. Bass's establishment of the Body Farm and the published studies and results have led to new understandings of the breakdown of the human body. These studies have enriched the knowledge of the decomposition of the body and the effects of the environment, which has led to enhanced use of forensic science in criminal investigations. == Progression and future ==

As Body Farm research continues to evolve, the researchers at the Anthropological Research Facility continue to identify new methods to calculate the postmortem interval, body identification, and any other variables that might aid criminal investigations. Time of death in a homicide case can make the difference between bringing criminals to justice and a cold case. Therefore, this has been the main focus of the Body Farm since it was opened. With the progression of research, Bass is hopeful that in the future, entomologists will be able to declare time of death within a half-day. What makes this a difficult task to accomplish is that every minute that passes after death, the range of time they can correctly estimate time of death is broadened dramatically. The Body Farm's success over the past 36 years is directly responsible for a vast amount of the overwhelming progress in narrowing that range. However, a body donation policy has been established that sets certain guidelines. For example, once a body has been donated, the remains will not be returned to the family as the skeleton will be placed into the program's donated skeletal collection. Bodies which were infected by diseases such as HIV and MRSA may only be donated if first cremated, which is still considered useful for research. Pre-donation paperwork must also be completed prior to a body being transported to the facility. == References ==