The Body Farm

The Reaper is a Creeper

The definition of death is the termination of life. The mythical character named death which acts as a personification of the taker of life and souls. It is usually represented as a walking skeleton with a mysterious black cloak, holding a scythe. He is also known as the Grim Reaper. Does this make death scary?

Walking upon a dead decomposing body is like spending the night in a haunted house. At first there is speculation but eventually your stomach ties in knots. In seconds the smell hits you like a ton of bricks smashing your nose, legs gradually weaken, your eyes start to water, electrical charges run down you spine, you heart pounds like a jack hammer. Lying in the position from the victim's last breath of air, maggots crawl about. Lifeless as a rock, clothes stained with blood and other bodily fluids, this site is as horrifying as a head on collision with a eighteen wheel semi truck.

From the moment of death flies are attracted to the body. It's the smell that brings them around, like routing garbage. Insects then begin to lay eggs around wounds and natural body openings, which eventually hatch and move into the body. This is when you find maggots. Later in the process, bacteria break down the tissues and cells releasing different fluids into the body cavities. Foul smelling gases start to linger into the air. The smell is like week old baby vomit, covered in burnt hair. The next stage the body eventually collapses leaving a flattened corpse with flesh turning into creamy consistency. Like a melting rubber or a couple gallons of jello pudding.

At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, there is a team of forensic anthropologist that study death everyday. This team practices solely on the decomposition rate of the human body. This spooky yet educational establishment is called the Body Farm. The body farm was the idea of Dr. Bass in 1977 when he was called upon to examine a body that was discovered in a historic cemetery outside of Nashville. He estimated the individual was dead six to twelve months. With closer experiments, he was wrong by 112 years. The body was preserved in a cast-iron, airtight casket. The body farm is roughly three acres of land with more than 200 bodies placed inside. This institute is used to aid law enforcement agencies in determining how the body decays after death. Bodies are placed in as many situations as possible resembling a crime scene. Cadavers are dressed in different outfits, submerged in water to act as a drowning victim, or victims of arson. All evidence is collected to determine how the body decays in that particular situation.

Not all of the residents of Knoxville are pleased that the Body Farm exists. A group called Solutions to Issues of Concern to Knoxvillians protested outside the area with signs that read, "This Makes me SICK!!!" Dr. Bass had a large fence installed and the protests ended. The security fence that was installed after the protests also is protected with a chain link fence that has razor wire atop the structure. These razor blades face in every direction, a tiny insect could not pass through without getting a clean shave. This wire prevents unauthorized people from entering the Body Farm. For example, two second-year law students tried to climb the fence. They did not get inside the Body Farm but were injured by