Sheriff Wants 'Body Farm' to Study Human Decomposition

A new kind of farm may soon take root in eastern Hillsborough County.

Unlike many others already in the region, this farm won’t be dedicated to the cultivation of plants or ornamental fish. In fact, it won’t focus on living things at all. Rather, the intent is to study death and its effects on the human body.

The University of South Florida and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office have joined forces to bring this particular proposal to life. The program, dubbed the Facility for Outdoor Experimental Research and Training (FORT), is being proposed to serve as a resource and training center for Florida’s medical and legal communities.

The “body farm” would sit on 2 acres of county owned and controlled land at the Walter C. Heinrich Practical Training Center in Lithia. Bodies for the farm would come from USF’s After Life Body Donation Program to advance research in forensic anthropology and legal medicine, the county explained in a media release. The cadavers “planted” on the farm would be left exposed to the elements so they can be studied by researchers and law enforcement.

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Outdoor facilities such as the one being pitched for Lithia are designed to help researchers and law enforcement better understand the changes in human remains that occur under different conditions. The county states the objectives for the facility are:

• To enable research in areas of forensic medicine, anthropology and physical sciences
• To provide a training location for outdoor crime scene methods involving human remains
• To enable the documentation and study of changes in human remains

“The forensic and scientific research conducted at the FORT would include performing simulated case studies for the medical and legal community, allowing graduate students to conduct independent studies relating to their research and offering advanced training to law enforcement throughout the state on how to process outdoor crime scenes involving human victims,” the county explained.

While similar programs are operating in states such as Colorado, Illinois, Maine and Texas, there is no similar research facility in subtropical Florida, where outdoor conditions can have dramatically different effects on human remains.

Dr. Erin Kimmerle, an associate professor of anthropology at USF, said having a facility in the Bay area is important because decomposition varies based on temperature, humidity, regional insects, water and other factors that set Florida apart from states where similar facilities are already in operation, the Tampa Bay Times quoted her as saying.

The facility is also hoped to help Bay area law enforcement and forensics experts better identify human remains to close the books cases involving missing people.

“In the Tampa Bay region alone there are more than 400 cases of unknown persons handled annually through the Medical Examiner’s Departments, with about 80 of those cases going unsolved,” county documentation on the proposal states. “This type of science has transformed crime solving and is now the catalyst for providing critical evidence in the pursuit of finding and prosecuting those responsible for violent crimes.”

If approved, the farm would be operated by USF.

“We are only allowing the use of the property,” said Det. Larry McKinnon, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

The public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 23 at the University of South Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, 14625 County Road 672 in Wimauma.

It is unclear at this time how soon the project would move forward if approved.

To find out more, visit the county’s website.

Image via Shutterstock

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