[Guitar music]
[Leslie] Everyone dies.
And when it's our time to go,
some of us will be embalmed, buried, some cremated.
[Denton] When you're dead, you're dead.
[Davis] Decomposition is all part of the process of life and death.
[Leslie] But there's a place where our bodies still tell stories long after our death.
It's called the Forensic Anthropology Center,
better known by its nickname, the Body Farm.
[Music fades]
[Bass] I said...
"I need some land to put dead bodies on."
[Guitar music]
[Leslie] It all started with an obscure phone call 4 decades ago.
Today, it's a world-renowned facility located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
A site where the decomposition of human bodies aids in forensic research.
[Bass] I mean, I hadn't done this before.
In fact, nobody had done this before.
This was the first facility of this in the world.
[Leslie] Rewind the clock and in 1981,
the Body Farm was just getting started.
[Bass] But the reason we're doing this is because there is no data
that exists on this at all.
Law enforcement officers bring me a skeleton.
We simply are guessing at how long that individual's been dead.
[Leslie] Dr. Bill Bass was working as an anthropologist
for the University of Tennessee.
His office and classrooms, underneath the famed Neyland football stadium.
[Bass] Time goes by and I'm called for various cases.
And one day the phone rang and it was a detective from Clarksville, Tennessee.
They had a body they wanted me to take a look at,
but I didn't know where to put it.
The restroom right outside of my office,
the janitor used the shower area for him to store janitorial supplies.
And I thought, "Well, I don't have anywhere else to put it."
And the best chewing out I ever had
was from a janitor in South Stadium Hall.
He goes in to get his janitorial supplies
and here's this really smelly decaying body.
He shook his finger and said, "Don't you ever do that again."
Okay, I never did that again.
[Leslie] Bass needed a solution.
[Bass] So I went up to see him and I said,
"Dean, I need some land to put dead bodies on."
Well, that was the beginning of the Body Farm.
[Music continues] [Crickets chirping]
[Leslie] Along the winding Tennessee River,
Dr. Bass was given three acres settled in the back corner
near the UT Medical Center's parking lot.
[Slides clicking]
But funds were scarce
so Bass and students did most of the startup work themselves.
[Bass] We didn't have anything in the budget for this.
So here I am cutting trees and so forth.
[Jantz] The facility itself was really quite small.
It was the original chain-link cage.
They had some burials outside the cage
that they did the original buried body studies in.
But that was really it.
[Leslie] For a time, the facility was off the radar.
[Reporter] This site is located somewhere here in the Knoxville area
but Dr. Bass asked that we not divulge the location
for fear that local curiosity seekers would come by
and ruin some of the scientific data.
[Leslie] Not everyone was thrilled with the prospects of the research.
[Jantz] There was a protest.
It was the only protest that we've ever had.
And now, we know that the community loves us and supports us.
[Leslie] News of the small facility would spread
thanks to a New York Times bestseller.
[Bass] Up until this time,
I had an obscure little research facility
in the hills of Tennessee.
When she did this,
it was internationally known right off the bat.
[Leslie] The notoriety in literature didn't stop there.
Bass has co-authored his own 15 novels based off of the Body Farm.
But what's happening inside these gates is far from fiction.
It's valuable science,
and his foundation for the facility has grown into a legacy carried on today.
And for the last 40 years, the Body Farm has built on that legacy.
But the research site isn't open for tours,
and it's rare to get a look inside.
[Mysterious music]
[Jantz] The facility is not anything like what you imagine it is.
Yes, we have a lot of dead bodies out there.
[Vidoli] You know, you have these two fences.
You have the privacy fence and then the chain-link
with the razor wire on top to keep people out.
So when you first walk in,
you're on a nice gravel pathway,
and then your focus shifts
as soon as you start looking a little to the left and to the right
and the gravel pathway continues.
You start seeing black plastic on the ground,
and you realize underneath that black plastic
is where we have placed the donors.
[Leslie] The Forensic Anthropology Center in Knoxville, Tennessee
has been the final resting place for thousands over the last 40 years.
[Vidoli] It is, I think, this interesting sort of juxtaposition
where you feel like you're going for a walk in the woods.
There's these trails and there's trees and it's a really nice scenery,
but there are various burials or surface remains around you.
[Jantz] People have these pictures of, you know,
it being horribly smelly and just being awful.
And it's not.
You're just out in the woods.
You can be standing right next to one that's decomposing and not smell it
or you can be standing 10 feet away and really smell it.
[Steadman] We have typically between about 150 and 200 donors
who are out of the facility at any one particular time.
[Leslie] Some bodies are exposed to Mother Nature.
Weather, temperature, and insects
all play an important role in the progression of decay.
[Davis] We are out there doing research, doing science
to learn more about the human condition.
Decomposition is all part of the process of life and death.
[Owings] You can just see all the hundreds of people who made that altruistic gift
to give their bodies to the advancement of science and forensic science.
People think it's a spooky place,
but I actually think it's a place that's just full of hope
and it's very peaceful.
[Music fades]
[Musical stinger]
[Leslie] Sitting on a hillside overlooking the Tennessee River,
UT's Body Farm is a peaceful spot,
but it's also quite busy.
Not a day goes by that someone isn't there.
Students and researchers
and the many coroners, investigators, and detectives
who travel from all over the world
to gain valuable skills in crime scene investigation.
[Vidoli] I'm really proud of our training program.
We have students who are law enforcement
and have lots of experience under their belts
and other students who have never seen,
you know, a deceased individual before.
We are able to modify our courses
to really match their experience and comfort level.
[Leslie] Whether it's estimating time of death,
learning to identify skeletal remains,
or excavating mass graves.
[Clattering]
On this day it's a group of experts from south of the border.
[Vidoli] We have crime scene investigators, anthropologists, archaeologists,
individuals who work in the kidnapping units in Mexico,
and they're working on a burial.
They need to find it,
excavate it,
document it.
So my team, right now, is working on trowling away at the dirt and screening it.
Hopefully, encounter some human remains.
[Leslie] And yes there's rotting flesh, dead bodies, and bones.
But the forensic anthropologists who work here on a daily basis
want people to understand this isn't a scary movie set.
[Davis] The Body Farm is not a place of sensationalism and...
we don't place our donors out for, you know, grotesque displays.
We have the utmost respect for our donors.
[Leslie] While what happens behind these gates is kept private,
the team hopes the power of their research
will impact those beyond the gates for years to come.
[Steadman] So that they can see that the facility is not just this big black scary box,
but something that they can feel a part of.
They can understand how this research helps people.
That brings a sense of community and pride to what we do.
[Musical stinger]
[Leslie] Popular crime shows often portray forensic anthropologists
as confronting a killer
and finding that one clue that will crack the murder case.
In real life, things look a little different.
[Davis] Bones makes it look easy.
[laughs]
[Vidoli] They always have much nicer technology than we have.
[Davis] We can't solve a case in an hour.
[laughs]
[Vidoli] It's always that balance between entertainment and the truth.
[Leslie] The truth is what they do is significant,
and they aren't afraid to get their hands dirty.
Their research on trauma and decomposition of bodies and skeletal remains
can give law enforcement a better picture of what happened at a crime scene.
But it's their job to stick to the science.
[Vidoli] We never go and talk to suspects or family members.
You know, there is this division of the investigation
what the investigator does
and what we do in the lab.
[Leslie] The Forensic Anthropology Center isn't solving cases.
But again, the research they do does aid investigators.
[Owings] One of the biggest things that we're working on right now
is trying to improve the methods that we use in forensics
to determine how long someone has been dead.
That's one of the most crucial questions
in a, you know, in a death investigation or in a murder.
[Leslie] And the Body Farm provides a training ground
for officials to sharpen their own skills
for whatever scene they might encounter.
[Elkins] Just really helps an investigator to understand what the body does
and being able to look at a body and tell the difference
between animal activity like rodent gnawing versus trauma to the body.
[Leslie] What law enforcement learns and applies to cases today,
all came from a foundation laid by forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass.
In the early days of his time in Tennessee,
Bass was a legendary figure at local crime scenes.
[Bass] I've done a little over 700 cases in my career.
Every death is a puzzle to see if you can figure out what happened.
[Leslie] And sometimes those puzzles are still unfinished.
Housed in the Bass Skeletal Collection are about 50 remains
from unsolved cases that law enforcement can revisit.
[Jantz] We get to a point where we've done everything we can
and then something new comes up
and so we pull it out and reevaluate.
The more eyes that we can have on it the better.
[Elkins] I went down on a cold case that I still have
and we sat the bones back out to look at those and we went over them.
Looking at that, you're looking at history, right?
You're looking at the evidence.
The only person that really knows what happened are those remains.
[Leslie] And this team is invested.
They care about the outcome of these cases.
So many individuals who remain unidentified
who deserve a name and their story told.
[Jantz] I want to get them all identified.
[Steadman] We also have incredible empathy
for the people who come to us as forensic cases.
We want to find out answers for the families
and for the criminal justice system.
[Music fades]
[Leslie] It's a big decision to make, choosing to donate your body.
But the legacy that lives on in the Forensic Anthropology Center today
is because of the dead,
those who have chosen a final gift to science.
[Steadman] Every day, we work with the Body Donation Program
where we are answering questions from potential donors,
bringing in donors who have passed away.
[Leslie] The moment a donor arrives at the Forensic Anthropology Center,
the research begins.
[McKee-Zech] There's not a day when
[laughs]
someone's not out there taking a photo, doing research.
We have a database of over a million photos
of donors throughout decomposition.
[Steadman] So when we receive a donor,
depending on the research that they're enrolled in,
they're typically out at the facility for a year to two years.
[Leslie] After the decomposition process is complete here,
the donor's skeletal remains are recovered
and brought to the Bass Forensic Anthropology Building
to be cleaned by students.
[Water trickling]
[McKee-Zech] They're going to clean off the dirt.
Make them safe to handle with bare hands.
They will use dental picks and brushes over the sink with just water.
We can get a skeleton done in an afternoon if it's just a little bit dirty.
[Leslie] It's a lab with hints of a home.
[Clattering]
[McKee-Zech] Crockpots are what we use for
small amounts of mummified tissue and cartilage.
So when we have really stubborn tissue that is not coming off,
we just heat the water up
so that it's not boiling, just so that it's warm,
and that causes that tissue to loosen up
so that it can then be scraped off with a dental pick
or just pulled off with forceps.
After they are finished cleaning,
they'll put the tray on the clean rack
and we'll do an inventory at the end
once the entire donor has been finished being cleaned.
[Sliding]
[Leslie] Next those bones make their way to Strong Hall
where they are cataloged and labeled
and kept forever inside the Bass Skeletal Collection.
[Steadman] We have received over 2,000 donors since 1981
when Dr. Bass first initiated the Body Donation Program.
[Leslie] But those thousands of bones aren't sitting collecting dust on the shelf.
[Steadman] We like to believe there's no end to the gift of body donation here
because we use the skeletons from 1981
today for research and for training
and we have people come from all over the world to take part in that.
[Leslie] One current research project will help law enforcement better interpret fire deaths.
[Steadman] Many times we'll get a case of people who die in fires in residences
and the police have to ask the question,
"Did they die in the fire?"
"Or did something happen to them before?"
And it can be very very difficult to tell that
because the fire itself creates so much fragmentation of the body.
So we can see lots of broken bones,
but we can't necessarily tell...
did those happen before the fire or as a result of the fire?
And that's going to be a game-changer
with how we interpret fire deaths.
[Leslie] Anthropologists aren't the only ones who are privy to the research.
[Steadman] Families can come and sit with remains
or learn what we've learned about them.
Jantz: Families do continue to call
and they want to know what projects their loved one has been incorporated into.
They may want to know step by step what happened,
you know, from the time we receive the donor, the body.
What do we do with it?
And then, you know, we talk about it.
They may want to see what's in the files.
[McKee-Zech] The donors that donate their bodies,
we could not do it without them.
It is the greatest gift in the world to donate your body to science
because it helps endless people.
[Music]
[Leslie] The end of one life that can give an eternal gift in the name of science.
[Music fades]
[Denton] When you're dead, you're dead.
[Mischevious music]
I think the older you get, the more comfortable you are with death.
[Leslie] And when it's Lucinda Denton's time to go,
her final resting place won't be in a casket
deep in the ground
among tombstones and manicured green grass.
It will look quite different.
[Denton] I'm going to the Body Farm.
And I decided to do that because I'd like for my body to be useful after I'm dead.
[Leslie] Denton is one of 5,000 people who are pre-donors
and have already been accepted into the Body Donation Program
at the Forensic Anthropology Center.
[Denton] I want it to be used for something good so I feel like
the Body Farm and all of the scientists there
can have use for my body.
I won't know what,
but whatever it is, I'm game.
[Music continues]
[Leslie] And while most might feel talking about their death plans is macabre,
Denton proudly wears it on a t-shirt.
[Denton] Oh! My son gave me this for my birthday several years ago,
and I have great fun wearing it.
[Leslie] For Denton, it was a decision in the making, even as a young child
when she remembers spending a lot of time at the family plot.
[Denton] So every Sunday, we would have to go
to the cemetery to fix the flowers and fix the grass.
And I was just a little girl.
And they made me take a toothbrush
and a little bucket of water
to clean the bird poop off of the tombstone.
[laughs]
So I have a very negative feeling about tombstones.
[Leslie] As she got older,
Denton became an avid reader of Dr. Bill Bass's books about the Body Farm
and its impact on forensic research.
She began to feel a draw to the Body Donation Program.
[Denton] The more I read them, the more I thought, "Yes! Yes!"
[Leslie] It's a simple process of filling out paperwork to apply.
[Denton] And I had to submit a picture as well
and then a description of any special things about my body.
And I have a shoulder replacement,
three knee replacements,
hip replacements,
pin in my foot.
So that all went into the description.
[Davis] We will send them an acceptance letter and a donor card.
And that donor card they can carry in their wallet
or keep with their important paperwork
to help them make their wishes known.
[Leslie] Not everyone is accepted.
There are some reasons why they will decline a body.
[Davis] If they have a history of infectious disease...
things like tuberculosis or hepatitis
or if they have an active infection at the time of death
like MRSA, COVID.
[Leslie] While it's a personal decision to become a donor,
your family should understand your wishes.
[Steadman] So that the families know what you want to do and why you want to do it.
[Vidoli] I don't need this vessel anymore so I would be fine donating my body.
But in the end, it's, you know, it's always about the living, right?
It's not about the dead.
And so it would really depend on what the living,
whether it's my husband, my children, or my family,
want to happen to my body.
[Leslie] After a donor dies, their journey begins with a phone call.
[Steadman] I do spend a lot of time with donors' families.
A lot of that is on the phone dealing with them in their...
sometimes their worst day.
They've just lost somebody.
We guide them through, you know, gently, what we need to do
and what I found is that it gives them a tremendous sense of peace.
[Davis] We will make arrangements with the funeral home, if that's where they are,
or the hospital or the medical examiner's office
to go and pick them up.
[Leslie] The donor is processed for research
then laid to rest at the Body Farm.
No embalming, no casket, or engraved stone.
Donors are placed above the ground with a small metal tag and a number.
A peaceful resting spot with an important purpose to serve science.
[Denton] The idea of being buried...
you know, that's the end.
But if you go to the Body Farm, then you're useful.
You're useful for research.
[Leslie] The Body Farm wouldn't be what it is today
without countless people choosing their final resting place to be here.
[Denton] I'm thrilled that I'll have the opportunity to help.
[Music ends]