New advances in forensic science have focused on crime scenes and what clues can be found at the scene. The body farms study the science of decomposition.

The Original Farm – Named by Patricia Cornwell

Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place - the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility better known as The Body Farm, ever since mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell used it as the title of her bestseller in 1994.

Today, Cornwell continues to visit the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility occasionally to gather forensic details for her popular crime novels.

Body Farms Help to Solve Real Crimes

There is no doubt that the Body Farms (there is more than one forensic anthropology facility now) serve an essential purpose in helping to solve real crimes by assisting law enforcement authorities and medical examiners to more accurately pinpoint TOD - a critical detail in many cases as well as the manner. They study forensic decomposition. Serious studies are also being done in Forensic Entomology.

WCU Forensic Anthropology Programme

Today the facility outside Knoxville, Tennessee, isn’t the only one; another one 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.

Forensic Anthropology Center at TexasState

A Forensic Anthropology Research Facility is currently being planned by the Texas State University-San Marcos Department of Anthropology. They plan to have their Farms operational by the late spring 2008. This will be part of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (F.A.C.T.S.)

Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility Founded by Dr Bill Bass

The original Body Farm is located at the University of Tennessee Forensic in Knoxville’s Anthropology Facility located a few miles from downtown off of Alcoa Highway. The facility was founded by anthropologist Dr. William M. Bass in 1971, after he found that no facilities existed that specifically studied decomposition.

On three acres surrounded by razor-wire and wooden fences near the University of Tennessee Medical Center, about 40 bodies rot away at any given time. Some of them have lain unclaimed at the medical examiner's office and are donated to the facility, while over 300 people have voluntarily donated their bodies. At The Farm, they' are put into car trunks, left exposed to the elements, buried in shallow graves, covered with brush or floated in ponds - all set up in a variety of real-life ways in order to provide insights into decomposition under varying conditions.

Donation Program at Knoxville Body Farm

The Department of Anthropology receives between thirty to fifty body donations a year. All donations are placed at the Anthropological Research Facility, with the remains eventually ending up in the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection.

Decay Research Facility

In her 1994 novel, The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwell introduced readers to a "decay research facility" at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It was then called the Anthropology Research Facility, but Cornwell overheard a nickname that local cops had adopted, and called it The Body Farm.

With forensic science advancing all the time, more precise and scientific answers are needed from crime scene analysis, and specifically from decomposition, which is studied in every detail at these facilities.

Tour the Body Farm with Dr Bill Bass and take a look at his latest book written with Jon Jefferson as Jefferson Bass.

The Body Farm in Popular Culture

• Patricia Cornwell’s novel, The Body Farm.
• Author Mary Roach visited the U.T. Farm and wrote about the experience in a chapter of her non-fiction book , Stiff.
• The U.T. Farm has also appeared in several television shows including - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
• The University was a featured extra on the season 3 DVD boxed set of CSI: NY.
• The original body farm was also featured on an episode of National Geographic's Taboo.

Sources:

Univesity of Tennessee Forensic Anthopology Center

Jefferson Bass - The Official Website

Taphopilia .com