Death’s AcreInside the Body Farm

By Dr. Bill Bass and John Jefferson

Dr. Bill Bass

A forensic

anthropologist.

Dr. Bill Bass

• Assisted with hundreds of cases for the FBI and numerous other law-enforcement agencies.

• He created the world's first laboratory devoted to human decomposition: the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility.

• He has written or coauthored more than two hundred scientific publications, many based on murder cases and other mysteries he has helped to prosecute or solve.

Aerial View of the Body Farm

The Body Farm

• Really called the Anthropology Research Facility

• University of Tennessee and Dr. Bass set it up.

• Used to study decaying bodies and time of death.

What is a Forensic Anthropologist?

• Forensic Anthropology is the examination of human skeletal remains.

• A forensic anthropologist will study and examine human remains.

• They will determine the manner of death, not the cause of death.

What does a forensic anthropologist do?

• Go to a crime scene to assist in the collection of human remains.

• Cleans up the bones so they can be looked at.• Analyzes skeletal remains to figure out who they

are.• Looks at the trauma on the bones to establish

the pathway of a bullet or the # of stab wounds. • Works with a dentist to match dental records.• Testifies in court about the identity of the

individual and/or their injuries.

What does a forensic anthropologist NOT do?

• Collect trace evidence (hair, fibers)

• Run DNA tests

• Analyze ballistic or weapon evidence

• Analyze blood splatter

• Conduct autopsies

How is it all done?

• Before you can tell who someone was and how they died, you must figure out the “Big Four”– Sex– Race– Age– Stature (body height)

Female Skulls

• Tend to be smaller than males.

• Mouth is narrow and chin is pointed

• Eye orbits have sharp edges.

• Forehead is smooth• Lack the bony bump on

occipital lobe

Male Skulls

• Tends to be bigger than female

• Contains brow ridges• Has a bony bump

called the external occipital protuberance at the base of the skull

Other ways to determine sex…

• Pelvis – Female - after puberty, the hipbone gradually

broadens and the pubic bone gets longer and angles farther forward to form more of an arch for the birth canal.

• Femur– Female – incline slightly inward beneath the

hips– Male – hang roughly straight down below the

hips

Using Skull to Determine RACE

• African Americans teeth and jawbone jut forward. Their bones are ivory like, sheen, and smooth. They are usually denser than Caucasian bones.

• The test…– Holding the skull in your hand, take a pencil and press

one end between the upper lip and the base of the nose. Holding that end in place, swivel the pencil downward. If it contacts the lips and teeth, but not the chin, the skull is probable African American. If you can touch both the base of the nasal opening and the tip of the chin, the skull is probably Caucasian.

KNEE

• The knees of African Americans have more space between the condyles than the knees of Caucasians.

Teeth and Clavicle determine AGE.

• If the third molars (wisdom teeth) have erupted, it is virtually certain that the individual was 18 or older.

• The sternal end of clavicle, where the collarbone joins the breastbone, fuses at about age 25.

Pubic Symphysis to determine AGE

The look of this bone changes from adolescence to age 50.– Teen: bumpy– 20 to 30: smoothes out– 40: face begins to erode and acquires a

porous spongy look

(If don’t have pelvis, can look at the cranial sutures in the skull. They begin to fuse at about age 25)

Determining HEIGHT using the FEMUR

• Mildred Trotter and Goldine Gleser Formula (1958)

• You measure the length of the femur and plug it into a formula and it will tell you how tall the person was.

What happens to bones in a fire?

• The arms and legs go first because they are thin and surrounded by oxygen.

• As they burn the skin becomes blackened and the fat begins to sizzle. Within minutes the skin splits open and flesh begins to burn.

The limbs “move”?

• When the flesh begins to burn, – the hands and feet clench– The arms curl up toward the shoulders– The legs spread slightly apart with the knees

flexed.

• Does this because the flexors are stronger than the extensors. As the fire cooks and dries out the muscles and tendons of the body, they shirk and the flexors overpower the extensors.

Burned Skull

•The skull is a sealed vessel filled with fluid and moist brain tissue.

•Moisture reaches boiling point and creates pressure in the cranium.

•If there is no bullet wound, for the pressure to leak out, the skull can literally burst, fracturing the cranium into numerous pieces, each about the size of a quarter.

Burned Bones

• At low temperature, a house fire will turn long bones into black or caramel – colored and leave them intact.

• At high temperature, arson fire fueled by gasoline, can reach 2000 degrees and bones can undergo a chemical and structural change.– The carbon in the bones burns and what is left behind

is called “calcined.” These bones might still have their shape, but they have very little weight and are gray in color.