New Body Farm in Texas

Posted by Karen Lotter Mar 12, 2008

I remember well when I picked up one of my favorite thriller writers, Patricia Cornwell’s fifth Kay Scarpetta Book, The Body Farm. Like with all her earlier books, I couldn’t wait to get home, turn off the phones and settle down to devour it in one go.

Dr Kay Scarpetta - Special Forensic Skills

In The Body Farm, Cornwell’s chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, solves another difficult mystery needing her special forensic skills and insights.

Scarpetta is joined by Benton Wesley, her niece Lucy, now working for the FBI, and detective Pete Marino.

The Body Farm, like all Patricia Cornwell’s books, is original and a masterpiece of forensic science fiction writing, although the actual body farm from the title is only the subject of one chapter of the book, if I remember correctly.

Three Body Farms in the USA

Well, more body farms are being established in the USA – the latest one at Texas State.

According to a media release dated 12 January, “The Forensic Research Facility will be an open-air lab of approximately five acres surrounded by high security fencing. Within this lab, human bodies that have been donated to the facility will be allowed to decompose in a natural environment under the study of forensic anthropologists.”

It will also provide training in the identification of skeletal and dental remains. Workshops for law enforcement at the facility will include crime scene training, human identification and cadaver dog training.

Law Enforcement Agencies Support the Texas Body Farm

Like the Body Farm at Knoxville, Tennessee, all bodies in the facility will be treated with respect and according to regular protocol for the study of human remains. Support for the Texas body farm has come from many law enforcement agencies in Texas and nationally.