Duke Behnke

The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent

APPLETON, Wis. — Fans of the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation undoubtedly will take interest in Fox Valley Technical College's latest venture: the creation of a cold-weather body farm.

A body farm is an outdoor research facility where forensic scientists place animal carcasses and donated human cadavers in various settings — in the open air, in a shallow grave or in a sleeping bag — to study the decomposition of bodies by digestive enzymes, bacteria, insects and scavengers.

The information can help determine the time and circumstances of death, which detectives can use to validate or refute alibis given by suspects in a crime.

Body farms are in operation in Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, but the Fox Valley facility will be among the best suited to study the decomposition process in the extreme cold.

Joe LeFevre, chairman of Fox Valley Technical College's Forensic Science Department, said researchers might conduct experiments on how subzero temperatures mummify body tissue, whether insects inside a chest cavity can tolerate freezing, or whether scavengers such as coyotes and foxes lose interest in a frozen body.

"There's a lot of unanswered questions as to what happens to (bodies) after death," LeFevre said.

The two-acre body farm will be built as part of the college's $34.8 million Public Safety Training Center at the south end of the Outagamie County Airport in Greenville, Wis. Voters approved construction of the training center in April 2012 as part of a $66.5 million referendum.

The body farm, labeled a "forensic field training" site by the college, will be located along the west edge of the property. It lies south of the college's "clandestine grave site" area, where instructors will use animal carcasses and cadavers to train forensic scientists, police officers and police dogs to locate buried remains.

Location worries

A resident living on the east side of the airport has serious concerns with the body farm, which is scheduled to open in mid-2015.

"Are we going to have excess flies now?" Tina LeFebre asked. "Is it going to smell now when the wind blows our way? What about if somebody wants to sell their house and potential buyers find out about that? Wouldn't they go, 'Eww'?"

LeFebre said most of her neighbors probably don't know about Fox Valley Technical College's plans. The body farm and grave site area were not publicized as part of the referendum.

Apprehension over the body farm is one of the reasons so few of them exist, LeFevre said.

"Not a lot of people want to deal with this topic," he said. "This is not a happy topic."

Fox Valley, though, considers its site to be ideal for a body farm. For starters, it's connected to the college, which is known to law enforcement agencies across the country. It's also isolated from the public by natural topography.

"This area works perfectly because there's such limited access to it," LeFevre said. "You can't get to this area without being either on airport land or our land."

Fox Valley Technical College will guard the site with a 10-foot-high fence to prevent curiosity seekers and thieves from entering the facility. The fence will be topped with barbed wire and screened with privacy slats.

LeFevre said nearby residents wouldn't smell odors from decomposing carcasses and cadavers.

"The prevailing winds will keep them more toward the airport, toward the runway where nobody is, or if they are, they're in an airplane whipping past at a couple hundred miles an hour, so they're not going to get that whiff," he said.

Research facility

The college plans to work with a forensic anthropologist at a research institution such as the University of Wisconsin or the University of Tennessee to conduct experiments and publish the findings.

"We'd be spearheading the experiments, but we'd be partnering with another school, which would probably do some of the experimental design," LeFevre said. "There's a lot that goes into research."

The body farm will be modeled after the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, started by forensic anthropologist Bill Bass. The Tennessee body farm is located a few miles from downtown Knoxville.

Fox Valley Technical College will start its experiments with pig carcasses to ensure its practices and security measures are sound before moving to human cadavers. Pigs have body proportions and organ placements similar to humans.

The Fox Valley Technical College body farm will consist primarily of grassland, but researchers might place a body in a shed, in a car or in an above-ground swimming pool to analyze how the variables affect decomposition. They also might replicate suicide scenarios for study.

While the farm will be primarily a research facility, the college will document its experiments with photographs for use in its instructional programs. Fox Valley Technical College has 187 students working toward an associate degree in forensic science.

Student access to the body farm will be limited to guided walking tours.

"They still need to get that odor of death," LeFevre said. "They still need to see, in the field, what scavenger activity actually does to a body."

The body farm also will further the college's continuing-education program for law enforcement professionals. LeFevre said the CSI skills taught by the college will help police from many areas.

"We'd be bringing their expertise up to the next level," he said. "Right now, we're just teaching them the theoretical and showing them some photos from a crime scene. With this, we can show them a real decomposing body."

Cadaver donations

LeFevre said he's already fielded inquiries from people who want to donate their remains to the body farm. For some, it's less morbid than having their bodies dissected by the medical community.

"They watch CSI and know the way they want to go," LeFevre said.

Deb Krsnich, a retired Appleton, Wis., police sergeant, said she would consider donating her body. Before she knew about the Fox Valley body farm, she thought of sending her arms and legs to a facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for use in training cadaver dogs.

Leaving her body to forensic anthropology poses no ick factor for Krsnich.

"I'm not there," she said. "Because of my Christian beliefs, that's a body I don't need any longer, and I'd be doing a service."

Krsnich, 57, said the only issue with donating her body might be that local researchers, instructors and students recognize her from her police career or from FoxTal, her Black Creek training center for police dogs and their handlers.

"I'm hoping by the time that happens, there's not too many people who are going to be utilizing the facility who go, 'Oh, that's Deb!' " she said.

LeFevre said the college will treat cadavers with respect. "This is still somebody's loved one," he said.