Dr. Mark Benecke "Body Farm"

Knoxville - The most unusual cemetery in the world is located in Knoxville, Tennessee. On the grounds of the Body Farm, human bodies decompose under the watchful eye of science. The Cologne criminal biologist Mark Benecke conducts a course here once a year for FBI agents at this unique research facility. The Body Farm is part of the University of Tennessee. On a one-hectare park, around 40 different corpses are constantly decomposing, each in different experimental setups. There are bodies in suitcases, bodies lying directly in the sun, and others hidden in shallow graves. "The researchers observe under what conditions a body decomposes and can draw conclusions for real criminal cases from this," says Benecke. The Body Farm receives the bodies from donors. For the criminal biologist, the farm is also highly interesting for another reason. He can analyze when different insects start to infest the bodies. "A kind of decomposition crash course at its finest," says Benecke.