It doesn’t happen often, but on occasions it will be requested by authorities or the
family of someone who has been buried that the body is taken out of the grave. This is
called exhumation, and there are a number of reasons why it might happen. Today we’ll
discuss some of those reasons it might be requested as well as look at the process.
This is, of course, something that normally occurs under only the most serious of circumstances.
Before we begin, we need to talk about decomposition. The human body decomposes differently depending
on a number of variables, like levels of oxygen, the weather, moisture, cause of death, and
other factors. According to a professor at the University of Tennessee working in the
Forensic Anthropology department, bodies start decomposing after death in only about 4 minutes.
We won’t spend too long on this as we dedicated an entire episode to it, and if you’re interested
in a more detailed breakdown of the whole process, check out our video “What Happens
When You Die.” The short version though, is that first cells break down and rupture.
Microorganisms and bacteria will then get to work, releasing gases that cause the body
to bloat and lead to the bad smell associated with decay. As we said, how fast all this
happens will vary based on the exact conditions, but roughly 8 to 10 days is enough to be sure
that the departed won’t be looking great. In a few weeks the hair and teeth will fall,
the organs, muscles, and skin will become liquefied, and the body will lose most of
its mass. After this comes something called dry decay, and this is when the slow process
of becoming just a skeleton starts to happen. When we say slow, we mean very slow. It can
take many years for a body to become nothing but bones. The process of decomposition is
also slower if the body has been embalmed, and if the body is in a coffin, embalmed or
not, it will at least stay identifiable for many months. If the body is buried in the
ground without a coffin, it can totally decompose in around a decade, but as we said, many factors
can affect the speed of decomposition. It also depends on what kind of coffin the person
was buried in, but it’s safe to say that no matter how it was buried, after a couple
weeks the corpse won’t be a pretty sight and after several decades it will definitely
be a skeleton.
So, why on Earth would someone want to dig a body up?
Many times people are exhumed for further forensic analysis in the investigation of
crimes. Sometimes, though, it’s just because the family wants the person moved to a different
resting place, or in some cases entire graveyards have been relocated to make way for new construction.
According to a recent article in the Guardian newspaper, every year in the UK hundreds of
requests are made for bodies to be exhumed. In most cases it was simply because a family
was moving across the country and didn’t want to have to travel for hours to visit
their beloved’s grave. It is not a simple process in the UK though, and the family will
have to fill out a 12-page form and send it to the Ministry of Justice. They will also
need permission from whoever is in control of the place where the grave is, and if that
is given and the Ministry of Justice gives it the go-ahead it might take 20 days to start
the process. Apparently, the church or cemetery where the person is buried will rarely say
no to the request as they just want to do what makes the family happy.
Other articles tell us that a big reason for moving bodies is when the area has become
“geologically unsound.” The area may have also been exposed to very bad flooding, and
the last thing anyone wants are graveyards being eroded and bodies getting a little too
close to the surface and in danger of popping out of the ground.
The exact process of what happens when a body needs to be exhumed for additional forensic
testing varies from country to country, but usually a judge will have to give his or her
approval. In Ireland for example, the law states that the exhumation must be done with
“due care and decency, and in such a manner as not to endanger public health.” A special
environmental protection officer is required to be on site to monitor the exhumation process
and then a zinc lined coffin is used to transport the body. Ireland also places a pretty strict
time limit on the exhumation, requiring that the body needs to be either reburied or cremated
within 48 hours. Other countries will also have to pay special attention to the season,
with some colder countries opting to wait until summer to exhume bodies when the ground
is no longer frozen and hard to dig up.
Investigators also have to give a compelling reason to the judge as to why they need to
exhume the body and one website lists the four most common reasons as:
· Incorrect identification of the corpse · Incomplete toxicological studies
· Trace evidence missed or overlooked · Incomplete or improper wound analysis
As you probably know, a few decades ago forensic analysis techniques were not as advanced as
they are today, so there have been plenty of cases when a body buried years ago has
been exhumed for further testing with the new techniques. There are many, many cases
of this happening. One such case reported by the American media told us of a girl who
was buried after being murdered and laid in her grave for 53 years without being disturbed.
Then in 2011 police believed they could finally crack the case but to do this they needed
to exhume the body. An attorney told the media, “We want to bring the best minds available
to us to have them conduct a thorough examination of her remains.” It worked, too, and a man
was finally arrested for the murder he committed decades prior.
There are plenty of other stories that play out the same way. In 2017, the BBC reported
that a woman’s body was exhumed after being underground for only three months. At first
the cops didn’t suspect murder, but after new evidence came about they needed more analysis
of the woman’s body. The family was of course extremely distressed by the thought of digging
up their recently deceased family member, but they agreed to the exhumation in the hope
that police could solve the case. The BBC wrote that the police discovered the evidence
they needed and a man was arrested soon after.
In another strange case a woman campaigned for 40 years to have her son exhumed. The
authorities said he was buried when he was just an infant, but the woman didn’t believe
there was anything in the coffin. She said, “The coffin was light. My son was not there.
And again, nobody believed me. Nobody believed me.” She was right, and 40 years later all
that was in that coffin were clothes, a name tag and a metal cross. Why would this happen
you might ask? Well, the Guardian wrote that: “The NHS in Scotland was forced to admit
to having unlawfully retained about 6,000 organs and tissues in hospitals between 1970
and 2000, many of which belonged to children.” Or in other words, they were keeping dead
bodies for organ harvesting. Gross.
Perhaps one of the most well-known exhumations of all time was that of the serial killer,
scammer, and owner of a real life house of horrors. His name, or at least alias, was
H. H. Holmes. He was hanged in 1896 and he requested that he be buried in a pine box
10 feet under the ground and then have the hole filled with cement. It was granted, too,
but many people thought this well known trickster had somehow faked his death and gotten away
with it. The body was exhumed and an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania an anthropologist
performed an analysis on the body and found that because of his choice of burial he had
not totally decomposed. She also found that the body really was H.H. Holmes. The body
had decayed of course, but not beyond recognition and even his moustache was intact on his skull.
It wasn’t his mustache though, but his teeth that they used to make the identification.
Mustache science is still sadly lacking it seems.
And HH Holmes is far from the only famous person that has been exhumed. When his body
was dug up he joined such illustrious company as Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln,
Simon Bolivar, Lee Harvey Oswald, Adolf Hitler, Che Guevara, Marie Curie, Jesse James and
Charlie Chaplin. Quite the mixed bag… of bones.
So, there you go, an exhumation 101 class for. What do you think about the process?
Would you allow a family member to be exhumed? Would you want your own body dug up? Tell
us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other episode What Happens When You
Die? Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. See you
next time.