Green Decomposition : The Body Farm

"It's not at all useful in describing what we do -- we don't 'farm' bodies. We aren't growing body parts. But it's because of Patricia Cornwell's book [and crime shows like CSI] that people know about these facilities and, if that's what they understand the facility is, I have no problem with that."
"It's about either confirming or denying an alibi, and trying to link an offender to that crime."
"Our climate [in Canada] is very different, and we know that the environment has a huge impact on the rate and process of decomposition."
"Our main priority is the privacy and dignity of our donors [so access is restricted to the facility]."
Dr. Shari Forbes, forensics expert, Becancour, Quebec

Dr. Forbes. Photo courtesy of UQTR.

Dr. Forbes holds a Canada 150 Research Chair in forensic thanatology at the Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres. An Australian academic, she was prevailed upon by the university to leave her native Australia for Canada to use her unusual forensic skills and organizational abilities in setting up a facility in a remote, forested location not far from Trois Rivieres in Quebec, where donors' cadavers could be allowed to naturally decompose for the purpose of scientific investigation.

Her professional experience includes helping to establish a body farm outside Sydney, Australia, in 2016. That experience and her unusual occupation led to her recruitment to lead and conduct research at the first human taphonomy facility in Canada. A facility which will also be used to expose police, search-and-rescue teams, the military, and human rights groups to associated training in taphonomy (the branch of paleontology that deals with the processes of fossilization).

As for thanatology, an unusual mode of scientific investigation, the name should ring a bell to anyone who was remotely, as a child, interested in Greek mythology. Thanatos, the son of Nyx, the goddess of night, and brother to Hypnos, the god of sleep, was known to carry humans to the underworld when their lives were terminated. The Fates decreed it so, that when human life had exhausted the time allocated to it, Thanatos would spring into action.

The science of thanatology comes by its name in this fashion, with a nod to the ancient Greeks, their fables, mythology and philosophy. Dr. Forbes explains to people interested in the disposal of a human body should they choose to become a research object in death that their corpse would be destined for a natural environment, left to decompose on the ground, in the open air, or alternatively within a shallow grave.

Shari Forbes (second from right) works with colleagues in 2017 at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research, the first “body farm” outside the U.S., which she established in 2016. Photo courtesy of Anna Zhu Photography & Film.

On the other hand, in an effort to mimic a crime scene, their bodies might be placed in a car trunk, wrapped in bags, a duvet, a carpet -- all of which scenarios are familiar to readers of murder trials. Left for months, the corpses would be the focus of study by scientists to determine the manner in which local climate impacts on the five stages of human decomposition; fresh, bloat, active decay, advanced decay, and skeletonization. How swiftly necrophagous insects like beetles and blow flies hasten the process is another area of study.

This summer, construction will commence on the first human taphonomy in Canada, the Secure Site for Research in Thanatology. It will join, in its presence in Canada, a scarce number of other such facilities that exist internationally specifically to determine how bodies in the Canadian climate decompose; its purpose to more accurately assist police in estimating the time that elapses since death; data critical in investigations of suspicious deaths.

It is information that also has the potential to aid in identifying human remains where a nameless body is found and police are tasked to match bodies to cases of missing persons. In 1980 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the first body farm in the world opened. There are now eight such facilities throughout the United States. Holland and Australia have each one of such facilities. The new Canadian facility will represent the first that exists the furthest north, geographically.

CCTV cameras will surround the area which a high-security fence topped with barbed or razor wire will encompass. The closest human habitation will be over 1.5-kilometres' distant. Odours do not travel more than 40 to 100 metres from the facility, which will see its first 'donor' cadavers in the fall. Each corpse will have a plot assigned to it, labelled with donor ID and date of placement, and metal anti-scavenging cages will surround each of the human corpses.

Scientists representing various fields of study will be assigned to conduct their investigations, where entomologists will focus on insect collection, and others will collect soil samples. Of interest will be how long a period of time that fingerprints can be collected before complete deterioration sets in, or how long soft tissue can be relied upon to yield a DNA profile.

Dr. Forbes' specialty is the collection of odours from decomposing bodies, to attempt the determination of identifying which of the thousand-some compounds dogs use to locate human remains; and for that purpose she works with cadaver dogs trained in their very own specialty. "We know it's probably about a dozen, and we can improve their training, especially in challenging environments like mass disasters", she explains.

"Especially with odour, you have to have a strong stomach. We just see the science. We;re scientists and we recognize the value of our work, and so we just think about what we're doing and who we're helping -- the police, and the victims and their families", explains Dr. Forbes. 

The Forensic Anthropology Center in Tennessee has over four thousand pre-registered donors, "more bodies are now declined than accepted", reported forensic scientist Daniel Wescott, in Forensic Sciences Research.

Dr. Shari Forbes, Canada research chair in forensic thanatology at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, helped establish Australia’s body farm, which opened in 2016.    Anna Zhu