Body farm educates the living

_MG_7033 — Students observing slideshow on decomposition. Photo by Chris Ramos.

By Anaiah Liserio

CLARIFICATION: In this story, it states that students were dry heaving at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility presentation by Texas State University-San Marcos. During the presentation, a student was subtly heard heaving in reaction to an image of a decomposing cadaver. This reaction did not indicate that students did not enjoy the presentation or benefit from its educational purpose. The reporter received three forwarded emails showing their appreciation and interest in the information provided at the event. Photos previously published of a cadaver surrounded by vultures and an unidentified female used to educate decomposition rate were removed because Coordinator Sophia Mavroudas said in an email after the event that she did not release the photos for public posting.

Learning doesn’t always go down easy. The sight of a decomposing cadaver consumed by maggots caused some students to dry heave during a lecture Oct 6. by Sophia Mavroudas, coordinator of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University-San Marcos.

Mavroudas and speakers from the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State University-San Marcos spoke at Brooks City-Base Campus about the nation’s largest body farm, a scientific research site in San Marcos where donated bodies are studied as they decompose.

According to the facility’s website, the overall aim of this type of research is to assist law enforcement agents and the medicolegal community in their investigations.

The lecture was attended by 83 students, said criminology Adjunct Sissy Bradford, who organized the events for the second year in a row.

Attendees said they were initially “grossed out” by the photos, but felt fortunate to learn about the research facility at Texas State, the first body farm located at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, body donations and biological profiling.

Cristina Figueroa-Soto, a second year graduate student at Texas State, introduced the Tennessee body farm, the nation’s first decomposition facility. The facility is a model for other research facilities around the U.S.

Mavroudas added that the facility is overloaded. “They have bodies every 3 feet.”

Figueroa-Soto then showed a slideshow of the Texas State facility, warning students that the pictures may be uncomfortable for some.

“Oh no, they like the gross stuff,” Bradford said.

In a slide series showing a chronological time sequence, a female cadaver was transformed from whole body to bare bones.

In another slide, numerous vultures were seen feeding on a cadaver. By allowing the vultures to feed on the remains, researchers can study how long it takes the body to be decompose over a period of time.

Also, Mavroudas gave a basic introduction to biological profiling and how human decomposition occurs. Profiling is observed by age, sex, stature, ancestry, trauma, pathology and anomalies, she said. For example, Mavroudas showed the image of a woman’s remains where both her facial and abdominal area were decomposing faster than the remaining body.

Postmortem examination explains that this is because she had multiple stab wounds in the face and abdomen. In other words, with the open wounds, decomposition occurred faster, whereas the remaining body tissue decomposed more slowly.

Mavroudas said the facility accepts donations of bodies in a 200-mile radius. Individuals can donate themselves, and family members may donate next of kin.

Although each donation is considered a gift and used for scientific research purposes under the Universal Anatomical Gift Act, the facility does not accept diseased or infectious donors. Body donation information is available online.

The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State “is not open for tours as it is a research facility,” said Bradford in an email. “Thus, we are very fortunate that they are willing to visit our campus,” she said prior to the event.

Bradford said students who are considering graduate school may want to consider Texas State’s masters and doctorate programs in criminal justice where students occasionally work with the body farm.

For more information on the body farm visit the website http://www.txstate.edu/anthropology/facts/.