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August 7, 2015

Strange But True!

Q. The three wooded acres contain “bodies stuffed inside cars, enshrouded in plastic, rotting in shallow graves.” What is this so-called “body farm” doing on the grounds of the University of Tennessee?

A. Set up in the 1980s, it's the Forensic Anthropology Center, oldest facility in the country dedicated to helping investigators determine time of death in criminal cases, says Renee Ebersole in Mental Floss magazine. The brainchild of anthropologist Bill Bass, the farm was the first to help pinpoint how a body rots: “How long until the arms fall off? When does the skull start showing through? How long before all the flesh is gone?”


 
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