What eats us when were dead

[redarrow]

What eats us while were sitting in the casket 6 feet under?

Dont just tell me "Oh, various bacterias"

I want names. And pictures. Pictures of these creatures in action.

Good day.. thank you

[tropple]

Not very much. The formaldehyde kills damned near everything that was in you when you go in the box, and if you are in a wood covered metal box, there isn't much that can get to you afterwards.

[Stompy]

Kinda OT..

..but I REALLY want to see what an exhumed body looks like. I can NOT for the life of me find pictures anywhere.

I'm talkin... if someone was buried in 1990 and you dug them up today what they'd look like.

Does anyone know where I can find pictures such as this?

Not only am I incredibly curious about this, but I'd also like to get an idea for a realistic zombie costume for this year's halloween.

[tropple]

Warning!

If you have a weak stomach, do not visit this link. There are pictures of dead people in various states of decay. I'm not kidding. Stay the ehck out you need to see dead people.

http://periciales.pgjebc.gob.mx/semefo.htm Click "Entrar", then choose a town.

[Rlyss]

Originally posted by Stompy
..but I REALLY want to see what an exhumed body looks like. I can NOT for the life of me find pictures anywhere.

I guess you're kinda in luck, as <a href="http://poetry.rotten.com/twe/">this link</a> was just posted on <a href="http://www.rotten.com/">rotten.com</a> a few days ago. I probably don't have to say it given the subject, but of course it's not safe for work, and it's very graphic, and not for those with weak stomachs.

I found a few other links about what eats us and what happens when we die.

http://www.deathonline.net/decomposi...auna/index.htm

http://www.deathonline.net/decomposi...rmentation.htm

http://adipocere.homestead.com/images.html

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...G=Search&meta=

[Speed_Gibson]

very interesting links and good pictures on all of them. Links showing corpses in varying conditions of decay are always something I will click on.

[iamnormal]

Did you ever think, as a hearse goes by,
That you might be the next to die?
They wrap you up in a big white sheet,
And bury you down about six feet deep
They put you in a big black box,
And cover you up with dirt and rocks,
And all goes week, for about a week,
And then the coffin begins to leak!

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
The worms play pinochle on your snout.
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose,
They eat the jelly between your toes.

A great big worm with rolling eyes,
Crawls in your stomach and out your eyes,
Your stomach turns a slimy green,
And pus pours out like whipping cream.

You spread it on a slice of bread,
And that's what worms eat when you're dead.

[teethman]

i always thought it was worms

[amonkie]

There's a place called the Body Farm, and CNN did a report on them:

http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/31/body.farm/

Pastoral putrefaction down on the Body Farm

William Bass started the Body Farm to study how bodies decompose

October 31, 2000
Web posted at: 3:42 p.m. EST (2042 GMT)

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place -- forensic anthropologist William Bass' Body Farm.

On three acres surrounded by razor-wire and a wooden fences near the University of Tennessee Medical Center, about 40 bodies rot away at any given time. They're stuffed into car trunks, left lying in the sun or shade, buried in shallow graves, covered with brush or submerged in ponds.

Students and UT anthropologists Richard Janz and his wife, Lee Meadows Janz, a former Bass student, take note of what insects come calling, and how long it takes them to do their work. Others test vital organs for protein degradation, amino-acid breakdown and levels of gas in the tissue. A project in partnership with the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory aims to create a calendar of decomposition by finding a substance that decays at a stable rate for comparison -- the half-life of death, so to speak.

And Bass, who retired last year from the university, still visits often, a genial paterfamilias whose busy lecture-circuit schedule cannot keep him away for long.

"I'm 72 and I'm sorry I'm getting so old because I have all these things I've got to do," said Bass, who started the farm with one body and a small plot of ground in the fall of 1971.

His work has been profiled in countless media outlets, from the Philadelphia Inquirer and the American Bar Association Journal to worldwide exposure through the Britain-based Reuters News Service and others. For most of the time, though, Body Farm workers toiled on in relative obscurity.

Known officially as the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility, it has been immortalized as the Body Farm ever since mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell used it in a 1994 book.

Cornwell continues to visit the farm occasionally to gather forensic details for her popular crime novels.

But the farm's complete body of work is far more useful in helping to solve real crimes by helping law enforcement authorities and medical examiners to more accurately pinpoint time of death -- a critical detail in many cases.

"It was a need-to-know thing," said Bass, explaining the origins of the Body Farm.

For 11 years as a forensic anthropologist in Kansas, Bass had dealt with skeletal remains.

"In Kansas, you have twice as much land and half as many people. But in Tennessee, there are twice as many people and half as much land," he said, explaining that bodies left to the elements in Tennessee tended to be found before reaching the skeletal stage.

Once he joined the University of Tennessee faculty, "half of the first 10 cases I got were maggot-covered bodies," he remembered. "And people (detectives) don't ask you 'Who is that,' they ask 'How long have they been there?' "

At the time, "there was nothing much in the literature," Bass realized. "So I asked the dean if I could have a small piece of land to put bodies on. That was the beginning of what has been 29 years of trying to figure out what happens to people. I think all we've done is scratch the surface."

Body Farm discoveries have been called upon time and again to help solve crimes, including the deaths of a Mississippi family found moldering in their cabin in December 1993.


Researchers at work at the Body Farm

"The maggots told you something, but the decay of the bodies told you something else," said Bass, explaining that there was a delay between the time of death and when flies found a way to enter the house and lay their eggs.

"Two things happen when a body decays," he said. "At death, enzymes in the digestive system, having no more nutrition, begin to eat on a person, and the tissues liquefy. You have putrefaction." Insect business also plays a big part as maggots take care of rotting flesh with often astonishing speed.

"Most of the characteristics used to determine length of time since death are determined by insect activity," said Bass. "Occasionally, there will be no flies in a house, and maybe it's two weeks since the time of death before flies finally find a way in, and then there are two different rates of decay."

In the Mississippi case, work on the Body Farm helped authorities to convict a relative in the deaths, which were determined to have taken place in mid-November, at least a month prior to when the victims were found.

"People will have alibis for certain time periods, and if you can determine death happened at another time, it makes a difference in the court case," said Bass.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation finds the Body Farm helpful, too.

Every February, agents descend on the Knoxville facility to dig for bodies that farm workers have prepared to simulate crime scenes.

"We have five of them down there for them," said Bass. "They excavate the burials and look for evidence that we put there."

Bodies come from a variety of sources -- unclaimed corpses from medical examiners' offices and outright donation. Some 300 people have willed their bodies to the facility, with more coming with each fresh wave of publicity.

"The university lawyers have a form they've made up," said Bass.

Because of this, the science of decomposition goes on. But Bass and his colleagues never forget that the subjects of their experiments were once living, breathing beings with dreams, hopes and fears.

"Once a year, we have a memorial service," Bass said Tuesday, just before leaving to join a German television crew for this year's service.

Is it always on Halloween?

"No," said Bass with a laugh. "That's just how it turned out."


CNN.com Writer Michele Dula Baum and CNN Correspondent Toria Tolley contributed to this report.

[ibis]

I've heard that we are actually lasting longer because of all the persuravitives (sp?) we eat. Not sure if it's true - but an interesting thouhgt.

[losthellhound]

Interesting information on the Body Farm.. A great idea

[tropple]

Discovery (?) has a show featuring the body farm. it was pretty interesting. I don't remember what the title was.

If you do a search on Death's Acre, you'll find a bunch of links for books.

[brianna]

you should consider reading "stiff" -- i finished it a couple of months ago and was fascinated thorough out.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

[Reese]

I saw an episode of CSI where someone dumped a body at a forensics body farm hoping it'd just blend in with the other bodies nearby.. didn't work... Great episode.

Very interesting stuff in those links...

[Dawson70]

I have wittnessed exsumed bodies that had been buried for 10 and 20 years.
A good quality casket (Batesville) kept out the moisture and insects. The body looked as if it had just been buried.
A poor quality casket, showed massive amounts of decay. Mositure is the enemy and allows insects and fungus to grow and eat away the body tissues.
Obviously, an unprotected body (in the elements) will be invaded by anything. Flies, animals and of course our own natural PH chemical reactions ( which by embalming, stops this process). Our bodies are "programmed" to decay naturally. An enzyme is produced the minute our body stops receiving O2. This causes the protien to begin to solidify. An after effect of this protien gas is rigormortis and odor. Even after we die, our bodies still continue to function by default. I think that is amazing.

[glytch]

Speaking of the body farm, it is a really cool place. Only a few miles from my house, too. (I was actually going to post about it, but got beat to it.)
A teacher at my highschool actually took a field trip there. Of course, you had to have parent's permission and such. While we were there, I remember specifically a body in a tree, and a few just lying around among others. I have to say, it was the strangest field trip ever.

[thebeat]

Just got back from vacation found this thread....When I was a student at the University of TN i had a chance to visit the body farm, it was indeed a very interesting place.