The Body Farm

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Hello.

Sorry, I think it's your dishwasher that's like on, that's almost like the last bit of the cycle or something. It kind of got a little crazy there. It's like, you know, I did, maybe, maybe not, you know, shove it full of stuff. I can't speak to that.

It's just, you know, I try to be very like, I am not running the dishwasher until it's absolutely full. I'm very frugal. Right. And so, even my son's like, mama, it won't fit in there.

Like that dish will not fit in there. And I'm like, I will make it fit. And it's probably a little extreme. Yeah.

So, well, so the house that I'm moving into soon is the first time I will have a dishwasher. Yeah. And I like how's that going? You're, you know, we're still working.

Moving soon, right? Moving soon, hopefully by the end of September. Nice. We will move.

But I, we had a dishwasher in my house and I was a kid, but like I never used it. Your mom made you do dishes. No, I didn't do dishes. That was only one of my chores.

Oh. And I hate dishes. So I'm glad I didn't have to do that. And then my apartment I lived in DC, had one, smelled real weird, so I never used it.

And it had like a leak, it was a whole thing. Yay, apartments. My New York apartment did not have one in my apartment that I'm currently living in. It's not one.

It's but our house will and it works and it's clean. I am most excited about the fact that we've got a podcast room. Yeah, we have a whole space. Like we're just going to have to make sure that we have a rug because it would be very echoey.

Yeah. Well, it's also, so the way that the room is set up, it's really cool. It's got like built-in shelves too. So we'll have like all my books in there and then it's got a closet that will stick our, you know, janky microphone pulls in.

I feel like now that we're getting a podcast room. I think we're moving up in the world. We are and pretty soon. I mean, we're going to be full on like official podcasters.

We're going to have to hire like a producer. I already have someone who said that they will, they're ready to like come be our researcher. Really? Yeah.

My friend, Chris. He's down. Oh, she, I'm sorry. I'm fine.

Yes, but she was like, listen, when y'all make it big and hire someone, I want his job. Oh. I feel like there's several people who like. That would be great.

I hate to burst your bubble darling, but making it big, it's going to be a one. We are slowly moving forward on merch. Yeah, I never heard any updates. I've been giving all the updates as I give it to you because I procrastinated hardcore and I reached out to a good friend of mine who's a local artist and I was like, hey, can you do this?

Also, if not, do you know someone? And so I have a contact info for a guy. Have I reached out to him yet? Sure, have it.

But I've got one step closer and I have this phone number. What the hell have you been doing working or something? I mean, you know, it's just- Oh my gosh. Excuse me.

I'm trying to rehab a house and move in. I'm trying to work. Please. I have like all the free time in the world.

I'm trying to research and sleep. Like, come on. Right. What else could I be doing besides talking to some guy about graphic design?

Well, if you need my assistance, you just let me know. I don't even know what these things would look like because you have not shared what's in your brain. I don't know what I get, what's in my brain onto somebody's piece of paper. Oh God.

And that's another thing for me guys. We have not heard your input and I will put this on social media. Yeah. Your input about what you would like to see as far as stickers and t-shirts.

Would you even buy this? Would you even buy it? Are you like, don't waste your time. That sounds stupid.

Crazy. Yeah. But I like I have this grand idea of what I want things to look like in my head. I just have to find somebody who I can and if you yourself are a graphic designer or know anything about that, shoot us an email.

Let us know. MountainMystery is dot Appalachian at gmail.com and Hayley will respond to you. Sure will. She will because we need help.

We need help as it was. We're drowning. All right. Yeah.

I got the body farm. You know that was my dream when I was like in middle high school. I wanted to go there so bad. Same.

I still do. I feel like you and I are just not only kindred spirits in that way but also sick puppies. I probably is. Yes.

So bad do I want to go? Same. So the body farm, you know, I'm going to tell you all about today and it's as I was digging into this more and more really cool things started to come from this. So okay.

I'm so excited. Children I want to sit you down and tell you a story. Once upon a time in a land, not so far away, lie a group of individuals unknown to each other in life but sharing a common space and death. That's right.

I'm talking about body farm in Knoxville, Tennessee. Ah, Knoxville. We just keep coming back for more and you do not disappoint. You don't.

You just keep bringing it to us. You bring it every time. Every time. You read time.

I know. Bring in it. You guys like below my mind with all of your weird things and murder and oh. I don't know if I want to live there.

I mean visiting absolutely. I have visited several times. There's all kinds of fun things to do in Knoxville. My friend lived in Merville.

Merville. Yeah, Merville. And she got married in and around Alcoa and her sister lives in Knoxville. Yeah.

But yes, the body farm you heard right and if you've wondered how forensic investigators learned their craft, many have studied directly at the body farm or at least research techniques created through the site in particular. I always wanted to be one of those CSI investigators. When that show came on which was around 2000, I was like, wow, that would be so cool. Yeah, I've actually just restarted watching it.

Really? It's on Hulu? Okay, I haven't seen it in years. I need to go back and start it.

It's really, really good. It just like it aged well too. Yeah. It's just a good show.

It's good writing. It's good. Like. Mark Helgenberger.

Oh my God. She is to me. She is very similar to Murch Marketing. I was my girl.

I think Murch Marketing. But also Murch as well. Yes. Solid girl crush.

Absolutely. These guys get started and where in the world did they get these people from? I'm glad you asked. I did.

Where? Holly? I'm glad you asked. Okay.

So it's the mid 1960s. Dr. William Bass was an anthropologist working at the University of Kansas. He, much like us, was curious on how you could determine the time of death in livestock, particularly like decomposing cows, which they have a lot of in Kansas.

I have some experience with that myself. Yes, you do. You told me a story about that one. Yeah.

It's Halloween. He placed the cow in a field and observed it day after day. The menomorphists that occurred, you know, he noted and made a lot of attention to you and this led him to wonder how quickly human bodies break down and turn from flesh to bone. Now, Hayley also had wondered this herself once.

I have experience with this as much. Okay. Whatever. So she says, at this point, there wasn't a great deal of research available in this area and it really sparked Dr.

Bass's curiosity. I mean, I think it's true. When you are curious about a subject, I instantly go and try and research it to read out more. Yeah.

And if there's nothing there, I find that is a great opportunity that's, you know, to be the catalyst for the source of information. Like, okay, this is an opportunity for me to go about seeking this out myself. So I'm going to be honest here. Like him, I would be like, hmm, how should I make this come into fruition?

So forensic anthropology, like forensics and anthropology, had always really fascinated me, like I said. So I'd probably be down to be on his team. Yeah. So I was in community college was I got randomly thrown into an anthropology class because I was supposed to be in communications.

It was full. Those are too very different. Somebody messed up and I'm like, well, you need another humanities elective. Anthropology's open.

Got to be. And I was like, all right. So I rolled in there and my professor was also a paleontologist. Yeah.

So she worked on sites like that had human remains, but like ancient people and she brought casts in and we got to like hold the cast of skulls and it was so freaking cool. And I still remember that class. I think I was in, I was in high school and I took it. I think I was probably like 14, 15.

You were old and I was obsessed. I think this is an opportunity. No, both of us have master's degrees, but I feel like this is an opportunity for us to, you know what, let's go and explore that. Let's go take her class.

I have too many student loans. No, no, no, no. But I mean, maybe it was an overclass. Yeah.

Maybe we can be like, hello, we are simply here to observe. I was like, I don't need any homework. I just want to sit here and listen to you talk. Oh God, no, I don't need no homework.

Nobody got time to know. Nobody got time to know. But I do want to like touch her casts. Hey, listen, I didn't say touch bones.

I don't even remember this professor's name, but I apologize if you're listening. You know who you are. I don't apologize. I'm just me.

No, but that would be really fun. It would be awesome. So Dr. Bass' inquiry about human decomposition would finally be studied years later.

So you kind of get that thought into your head and you're like, how can I make this happen? And you know, time, place, it just all doesn't fit exactly. Imagine being in that like boardroom when this was pitched. Or trying to write that grant.

And you know, so when we talk about universities, we're talking about people in administration who, you know, you got to get this past folks who deal with the money. You got to get this past folks who, you know, are really like, what are we trying to do here at the university? Exactly. What is this going to look like?

How are we going to present this to the community and all these things? We have to spend this and it's going to be a very prestigious thing and not just like a field of bodies. Exactly. Give us your bones.

It's got to be more like this is with slow and ticklish lunch. Right. You got to get, make sure that's at the forefront. 100% because when you're going, you know, with your slideshow and you're like, now.

Now. This was Johnny. Johnny died of, you know, tuberculosis. Johnny is now laying in my backyard.

I'm watching Johnny decompose and making notes about it. This is stage one of Johnny's decomposition. We know you, Samus compost. Like, I mean, I can imagine how horrified these people are who deal with numbers all the time.

And they're thinking like, Oh my God, no one's ever going to come to this university. Actually, I have dead people here. This feels like this might be more costly than being something that would be worthwhile. So I don't know why, suddenly, you know, they deal with numbers and they speak like that.

They just kind of take some security. Yeah. There's definitely a divide between like, you know, people in certain fields and who are kind of working in it versus people who work more in the money area. Yeah.

You got to understand each other. Yeah. There's definitely this kind of people who worked like in the field are kind of like, but I don't understand why can't we fund this. This makes so much sense.

It makes so much sense to us versus people who do it with the money are like, this is stupid. There's no way. You are an insane person. If you want to get paid, you'll shut the front door.

Yes. So it took a little while. I don't know. My 1977 doctor bass had moved from Kansas to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

And it was then that doctor bass was called out to Franklin Tennessee, which is an area that is near Nashville. And this is where a murder victim was found laying on top of a Confederate soldier's grave. So that's, yeah. The soldier had been killed at the Battle of Nashville in 1864.

So this grave was pretty darn old. So the man on top of the grave was fully closed and appeared to have been deceased for a little less than a year. The body was well intact and had most of its flesh. So cool.

Okay. So you have to wonder was it some kind of statement to like put a murder body on top of a soldier's grave? Like, you know, it's strange. So when doctor bass and his team began analyzing the victim and samples of his clothing, they made a startling discovery.

The young man was not a random murder victim at all. He was the Confederate soldier who died in 1864. Why is he on the top of the ground? Okay.

Why is he up there? Okay. So did someone dig him up? Okay.

Turns out, grave robbers had punctured the soldier's coffin, which had been made out of cast iron and was sealed super tight. Okay. Okay. So the robbers thinking they could steal money, jewelry, et cetera, not a surprise when the soldier still looked like a man and not a pile of bones.

Very well preserved. 100%. And so the robbers were like WTF. Nope, they're out of there.

Close the grave and like haphazardly like, you know, searched him for gold money, whatever. And then just like threw him on top of the grave. So later days, some weren't out of there. Exactly.

Totally freaked him out and covered him lightly with dirt, I guess, to like, rebury him if you will. And they were like, peace out. So you know, exactly, exactly. So not long after this, Dr.

Bass's department was donated several unclaimed bodies for research purposes. So this got out. This feels illegal. And you know, honestly, if you really, you know, want to think about it, if he's going back to the soldier, I mean, he was in a cast iron casket and still completely tight.

So he wasn't exposed to moisture or air or any of the things that can easily break down a body. And so his body was well preserved. So it seems natural that you would think like, oh yeah, he was just murdered like a year ago and everything happened. Like, so that just goes to show like how skilled his team was being able to say actually.

So suddenly he starts getting all these bodies. Dr. Bass encouraged the university to use some of the property behind the school to create the body farm. Again, I'm sure the school was right on board with that said, yep, let's do it.

All right. So is this where like students are going to park on the first day and like, we'll put tape around it, you know, like caution tape, then we'll just have them there and maybe we'll put it over them, maybe not. But like, how do they control this now? You know, that's a really good question because that would that sulfur, that those smells would just permeate the air.

You have things. And I mean, I'm sure for like, you know, freshmen coming on campus, you know, you want to make sure that like the dormitories are not near the body farm. I'm sure it's a way though. I believe so.

I haven't been there, but I would assume. It's like a butt's up against the freshman dorm. It's like, listen, you got to do your time. It's like, it's like, you gotta be here.

You mentioned it in your first day, you know, your parents are with you dropping off all your craft, you know, you got your twinkle lights, you're going to get your bed, look out your window and they're just a dead dude. You're extra long twin sheets that you're putting on the bed. Oh my god, there's been a crime. And they're like, no, no, no.

I saw a dead body. Of course you did. Of course you did. That's normal.

That's typical. You open your like, let's see what kind of you I have. You're like, holy, you know. You just keep them shut.

Yes. Keep those blind shut. You do. And then you almost, you know, if you were us, you'd start to get into like, like, are these?

Probably. Oh, probably. 100%. Okay, tell me where.

So this would be the place where Dr. Bass and his team could study how human bodies react in varying stages of decomposition. His dream came into fruition in 1980 when the university fenced in, well, obviously, a two and a half acre wooded lot behind the school for what is known as the body farm. That's what I want to land.

Absolutely. I'm trying to have acres. That's actually not though, if you think about it. No, I'm talking about.

No, it's not actually. I mean, yeah, but no. Right. And actually that's a lot to fenced in as well.

So that was probably very costly for the school. And probably a grant, I would think. I don't know how you found that. I don't know how you found that.

I don't know how you found that. I don't know how you found that. Oh, God. Oh, this university.

Why? Oh, these are the English. I don't know. So I love though that somebody just dreams of a body farm.

It's like my list and this is my passion. I've been waiting for a barbecue. Okay. So I feel like this is one of your dreams.

I'm obsessed with this. Like this is, I mean, as much as I'm like kind of poking fun at this, this is the coolest thing ever. Totally. It's amazing.

And like the advancements that have come because of this place, fascinating. I love it for those who are renting daily. I love it so much. So on this body farm, Dr.

Bass and his students took a slab of concrete and placed a shed on top of it with a porch inside the shed where the tools needed to work with bodies, like retractors, saws, you know, all those things that you may need. And the porch was where they could lay the bodies on a metal slab like, you know, on top seat. And it's funny to think about because when I hear shed, I instantly think of my dad's like junkie old shed, filled with paint and letters and crap, you know, and I can hear me yelling, Hey, Lee, bring the body to the shed. So when I'm thinking porch, I'm picturing the porch at my house currently, which is like, it's just kind of a concrete flat and like got some columns on it.

And the cars are driving by live, you know, on a residential street and have neighbors pretty close by and, you know, the cars are driving by and I like have my saw in my hand and I'm, you know, doing what I have to do with this body and, you know, Bob walk in the street and just wave at him. Why did you have the saw on your hand when you're waving because you, you all didn't see this, but she was talking about sawing and someone comes by and she raises the same hand that's holding that saw and is waving at Bob. Yeah, because I mean, like you're just sawing at the body there. As you normally.

As one does. Absolutely. I don't know. I think this is a visual.

I think. I don't rockin', you know, maybe having a nice drink. Maybe coffee like it's the morning. I'm just gonna porch beer.

Ooh, I love that. Folks are walking their dogs and just, you know, maybe going for a little jog. Suddenly you pop those earbuds out and you turn and go. Hi, Haley.

Hello. Hey. I got nearly started to work this morning. I thought I would just chop up this guy here.

I got put him in the backyard. It may smell a little funky for a few weeks, but it'll be fine. Sorry. I'm so glad we share property.

Bye. Yeah. Ooh. Yeah.

So I'm just trying to let it be true. So I'm just trying to let it be true. I'm just trying to let it be true. So I'm just trying to let it be true.

So I'm just trying to let it be true. I mean, this changes our concept of backyard changes our concept of shed, porch, you know. All right. So in May of 1981, the body farm was up and running and they had received their first donation.

Yes. This was the corpse of a 73 year old man who had died from emphysema and heart disease. So he didn't die of any kind of nefarious causes. But in order to keep the man's identity confidential, they simply referred to him as one dash 81.

Sorry. So this stands for the number in which the body was donated and the year. So he was the first and it was 1981. So in this case, he would be the first body that lay at the farm.

Okay. Oh, I feel like there's like an honor for that. No. You were you always remember the first always remember the first when working in actual crime cases without donated bodies.

Dr. Bass usually would flip the number in the year. So if the body was found in 1982, for example, and it was the fifth body, he would write something like 1982 dash five. So just to distinguish between what was on the farm and cases that he went to investigate.

So it's a good plan. Makes sense. I hate to get those bodies mixed up. Very bad time.

Very different. Absolutely. So in the early years of the body farm, students spent a good portion of time researching of the presence of insects on decomposing bodies. One student in particular, Bill Rodriguez observed that below flies quickly began swarming a body left out in the elements.

They began laying their eggs in all orifices of the body. Oh, yeah. Just the thought makes me cool. These eggs would end up hatching into thousands of maggots and beetles.

Thousands. As the body continued to rot, yellow jackets and wasps began inhabiting the body looking for a little bite to eat. Rodriguez was able to classify decomposition into four distinct stages. Get your pencils out.

I'm ready. Here we go. All right. The first stage is known as the fresh stage.

Mm. Nice. This is when below flies are swirling the body looking for a nice piece of flesh to burrow and lay their eggs. Love that.

As I mentioned, maggots quickly begin feeding and thousands cover the body. While still in the first stage, the jaw and mandible begin to move downward and stretch out, which appears as if the person is smiling. Now, you told me before, you told me before having worked in hospice that typically the jaw will relax. It does.

And it's sometimes creepy looking. Yeah. Usually what we do is roll a towel up and stick it under their neck so it would keep the mouth shut free. Especially if families there are something and they want to come back in after we've cleaned up the body to have that moment with their left one.

You don't really want them looking spooky. Surprise. And now the mouth's open. Sometimes the eyes don't close and you got to put a little bit of tape on there.

Take those up or down. It's just, they were surprised by death. Great. It's like not that point they weren't.

That's not how it was. They were not surprised. So at this point, you know, the body is still easily recognizable. You know, hair and skin are still securely attached.

They look like people at the fresh stage. Right. Stage two, otherwise known as the bloat stage. This is where bacteria in the intestine starts to build up and produces gases that are emitted through the tissue of the body and into the air.

And when a body fills up with gas, the corpse will enlarge and appear to be bloated. Now, this is kind of like when I eat a lot of beans. The stomach gets all bloated and just filled with gas and nobody wants to be in the room with me. Yeah, I've only seen this and like when this happens in animals from growing up on a farm, you just, you know, you're around a lot of life and death on a farm.

But the story of the cow situation, it died. We had a large cow that had died on the farm and you usually take like big animals like that to a landfill, pretty much. I did not know that. Take them like directly to a land cell and they have like a whole process of like where you put them because you don't want, I mean, you can't bury every animal that dies on a farm.

So you'd load them up in your trailer and you'd take them. Well, apparently the land cell was closed and it was how we leave. So there's some reason I couldn't get it out there. So that cow stayed in that trailer for like three, four days.

I think this one was so bad. It smelled so bad. We could smell it from the house. Like I said, it's a farm, but we live on a very residential street, which is very confusing.

And it was Halloween and we have around like 300 trick or treaters on our street. So it was a very memorable year for everyone involved. It was like, wow, that house smells like death. Well, I mean, apropos.

I know. And I was like, well, at least it was Halloween and not like Easter. Yeah, he has risen. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So well. So I know it's so much. So again, when I eat beans, I'm just saying I understand the bloat and you're lucky you're not around when I do because what comes out of me does not smell that great.

So happy Halloween. So we've got the fresh stage and the bloats stage. All right. So stage number three, the decay stage.

Obviously, this is when the body begins to break down losing its appearance and structure and the flesh actually starts to fall off the bones. It's like you're unendentifiable rib kill stage, right? Gotcha. Yeah, exactly.

Where you're like, is that a person? Listen, I live in kind of a rural-ish area. You're up there. Listen, I do know people who've done that too.

They hit the deer and then they just loaded it in the back. You were listening. She was out mud. You're out mud and you hit that deer.

And she's like, oh, snap. You had put it in the back of the truck. Deer? I was thinking more like awesome, but okay.

No, you don't need possums, Chris. Not good. I wouldn't need deer. It's great.

Anyway, sorry. I guess it was the end of last school. There had been a deer hit on the road and it just kind of happens. And it was a drug out to the field, but you could see it from the road.

Anyway, I was fascinated with this whole process because I would see that deer every time I drove to work. You're like, where is it in the stages of the deer? Right. And it was when it was fresh.

I saw it when it was polluted. I saw it when it started to decay and then the buzzards came and that sucker was gone in like a day. The whole thing. They're circling.

Deer gone. I was like, what happened? Fascinated. Fascinated by that.

I was like, did you see that deer? That was it? I was like, oh, it was so sad. I'm like, no, it was so cool.

Naturally, I think, you know, and this actually seems to be perhaps something that you would think about like when you should perish is just being exposed to the elements. How quickly you go? I mean, whether it's because of heat or animals or whatever it may be like a body can quickly decompose when it's outside. Yeah.

We talked about how my dad, I don't really care what happens to my body after I die. A lot. I have, you know, in all seriousness, what I would like to happen honestly is just dig a hole and put me in it. Like I don't like a shallow hole.

I mean, be up to health code standards. But just like, I don't need a casket. I guess I don't need anything like that. I guess whatever biodegradable wrapping I agree.

You want to put me in? Just check me in there. I'll be gone in like a week. Human compost.

Right? And then like I just returned to the earth and then we're good. Yeah. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

So that kind of just really is great compost for the flowers. Oh, these veggies are really good. Don't do that. I'll be planning to show you.

Oh, oops. I planned it a whole corner. Oh my god. That's great.

Wow. It's very, all of your veggies are kind of all red. Why? Oh, because she was a red head.

Okay. Tell me about the decay stage. Whatever. All right.

So that's the decay stage essentially. It's when it's, oh, is that like a person? It's starting to look very, very different all of a sudden. And I think that if you saw someone in that stage, it would be very, and also during the decay stage, this is where we get those smells that start to come.

All right. So stage four, the final stage is known as the dry stage. This is actually when the body has completely decayed and is now skeletonized. Interesting.

Yes. So when working with the body of one dash 81, their first one, ever, Rodriguez noted that it only took about a month in the elements for the body to go from fresh to dry. So skeletonized in one month. That's very rapid.

It is, but it feels right. Well, they noticed that microbes and insects had consumed most of the fatty tissue and while exposure to the sun had caused the bones to dry out. If you think, this was between May and June of 1981. So the heat definitely played a factor in de-comp.

And in case you were wondering, I am a nerd and I looked up what the weather was in Knoxville between May and June of 81. And typically the high was in and around 85 degrees at the hottest point in the day. So a body at 85 degrees in direct sunlight would definitely start to break down a lot faster. And I imagine the smell, you mix heat with de-composing body.

And I'm sure that the freshmen were like, hmm, what is that? I like the smell. I can't even imagine. I mean, I've smelled like a dead mouse.

Oh, god, that's worse. Like with one die in your house or something or like in a cabinet or in a ceiling wall situation, that smell is horrific. And that's a tiny little mouse. Mm-hmm.

Can you imagine? No. And all the gases and things like that. I mean, I've smelled like livestock but not like through the whole phase.

Like you get those out of there pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. But like, no.

So the body farm is still in operation today. It is. Oh, just so you know, if you dare get an inkling, it's surrounded by razor-wired fencing. I keep the bibbers and gurias past for us at bay.

Can you only take a tour? No. I bet you can't of the actual like, I think that they have a, they probably have like a part that they let people see. Probably so.

I'm sure they don't take it out on a lot. No, because part of it is the forensics and you would mess up the investigation. Right. So you could know.

Yeah. I bet they have like an information wing or something. I'm sure they do that. I feel like you would know I would just be like drooling on her.

Oh, I know. I'd be so cool. I'd be like, tell me all the stories. I want to know all the things.

So there are usually 40 bodies on the premises at one time and each are laid out in differing scenarios to determine things like cause, time of death, how the elements play the role in determining these factors. So in fact, research obtained through the body farm has been very helpful in solving cases and leading to murder convictions. In fact, in 1991, Dr. Bass and his students were called out to a car arson where the victim had been burned pretty extensively.

And in order to determine when the victim died, they turned their focus to entomology or AKA, the study of bugs. Nice. The victims are always a great clue on the dead bodies to help determine time of death. So in this case, they took some of the charred remains back to their lab slab, get on the porch, where they studied the migration and spread of insects.

They were able to determine that the victim had been dead through an entire lifecycle of the blow fly, which accounted for about a two week span. So it was concluded that the man was killed at least two weeks prior to the car being set on fire. This knowledge actually helped police hone in on the culprit and get a conviction. Yeah.

So while the body farm has been helpful in convicting murders, it has also helped set the innocent free. Nice. I love that. Yes.

In 1981, a man named Allen Gell was in prison for murdering someone named Allen Rijinkin. So Gell maintained that he was not even present during the time that Jenkins was killed. His lawyer called upon Bass and his team to use a system of measurement known as degree days. So this monitors daily temperature along with the spread of maggots on the body to determine range of death.

Turns out Jenkins had been killed while Gell was in prison. And so he could not have been the murderer. And he was set free. That's nice.

Yeah. It's like, oh, gosh. All right. So the last case I wanted to tell you about occurred in 2007.

This one was so cool. So Bass and his team with permission from the family and court system, obviously, exhumed the body of JP Richardson Jr., otherwise known as the Big Bopper. All right. So you probably don't know about this picture against her, but the Big Bopper was a famous artist, musician, who died in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly in 1959.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the Big Bopper's son, Jay, who was actually his mother was pregnant with him. And when his dad died.

So we never really knew him. But Jay encouraged Bass's team to investigate after rumors plagued the family for years about his dad's death. So there's actually reports that claim that the Big Bopper had been shot by Buddy Holly's gun and that the commotion had caused the plane to crash. So that he actually was shot and killed prior to this crash.

So the Big Bopper's son just really wanted answers to questions that haunted their family for decades. Yeah. So Dr. Bass exhumed the body.

Well, he knocked himself, but the body was exhumed and they used x-ray technology to examine the bones. He concluded with a fair amount of certainty that the Big Bopper had not been shot at all. He had actually died due to impact of the crash. Dr.

Bass presented his findings such as fractures in the chest, skull, pelvis, and legs. His death was pretty immediate upon impact and he finally gave the family some peace enclosure. So, and then they re-beared his partners. The body farm continues to thrive today and anthropological researchers have made advances in post-mortem analysis.

Researchers have been able to determine a person's lifestyle, heritage, and environment based on their bones. This helps us create an understanding of how individuals lived and subsequently how they got it. Currently the body farm helps to expand. As this is kind of like we talked about, today there's a small area.

Exactly. Especially when we're talking about 40 bodies trying to create different conditions. So in order to study these cadavers, they need more space and they're getting more and more donations each year. So anthropological students are now researching compounds that are released by human bodies to the air.

So these compounds can be sniffed out by canines. There are about four... D-d-hogs. There are about 400 compounds that dead bodies give off.

Yeah, that's a lot. And they're trying to train canines to, you know, seek out these compounds. And this could help find missing people who have died and all those things. So if you wish to donate your body to the body farm, which by the way, they get between 30 and 50 bodies a year.

Wow. You have to meet certain criteria. So for example, once your body has been donated, you are not given back to your family. Right.

So it's kind of a done deal. So your skeleton will be removed from the farm once they've used you. And you'll be placed into the skeleton collection for future analysis. How for you?

What? What? I must go see this. That's so cool.

Yes. Yes. Skeleton collection. I love that.

So additionally, those who had AIDS or MRSA can only be donated if you're cremated first. So this actually is interesting to me because dead bodies, I mean, blood and tissue die when the person dies. So a virus like AIDS would not remain active and therefore would not affect others. I mean, and even you could drain the blood from somebody's body prior to donation.

Like they're just being away. So they would take your cremation? Yes. Yes.

So yeah, even if you've been cremated, you can still be donated to science for research. That's cool. I would not have thought that. Me neither.

So do know that predo nation. All paperwork must be complete. I know you have to like decide like this is well, no, because that makes sense. We had a couple of people when I was working in hospice that donated their bodies to science.

Yeah. And it is a whole process. And when they die, there's a whole process that the nurses had to do that I had to do as a social worker. Like, as soon as I died, I would get a phone call and like immediately had to start that whole thing.

Like they have to be kept at a certain temperature. Yes. Like, I mean, you had to have like ice packs on the ready. Yes.

Cooling. Like it's a whole thing. It is. And you know, prior to them come in to pick up your bod, all the paperwork must be science still delivered done.

Yeah. And I'm a paperwork guru. So I get that and I am anal about my paperwork. So don't worry.

If I make the decision to donate my body, that paperwork will be done completely. All right. So that's my body farm. That's so cool.

Would you ever consider donating your body to science? Gosh, you know, I thought about this. And I don't know. Part of me feels like for the sake of my son, he may want a place to visit me or yes, a piece of me or, you know, even if I were an urn on the mantle, he gets to be like, there's mom, you know, so if I were donated to science and they're not getting my body back, there may be, I mean, he would maybe be able to see me at the skeleton collection.

Right. You know, I, I mean, like, yeah, with you with kids, it would have to be, you know, conversation obviously, like he's much older. And I'm also curious, like, if my body is now, you know, once it becomes a skeleton, it's part of the collection, is he allowed to come visit? Yeah.

What do you want to? What do you want to? Because I think it's one thing to go to a graveyard and know that they're underneath their attention. Now they're skeletonized.

I think it's totally different to like go see mom, the skeleton. Yeah. That's kind of weird. I don't think like there's nothing in me that really draws me to this cold.