Beyond Bizarre -- Forensic Anthropology
Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
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00:00On the banks of the Chattanooga River sits the main campus of the University of Tennessee
00:08in Knoxville.
00:11This campus has always been a vanguard in the field of anthropology.
00:17Here at what is fondly called the Hill, this tradition continues, but with a macabre twist.
00:26Dr. William Bass III is the nation's preeminent emeritus professor of forensic anthropology.
00:35His enthusiastic students come from around the country to gain expertise in how to learn
00:42from the dead.
00:45Forensic anthropology is that area of science that deals with the human skeleton when it
00:51is involved in legal medicine.
00:54Part of his profession is getting a new generation of experts involved.
01:01Not far from the university proper, on a three-acre parcel of land locked away from public view,
01:09is hidden the forensic anthropology research facility, the body farm.
01:15You'll be able to get quite a bit of experience of looking at this individual.
01:21It is here that students pursuing their master's thesis climb down from their ivory tower for
01:28a little earthy instruction.
01:31You've got to look forward to this.
01:42The anthropology research facility is a three-acre area in which we have done different types
01:48of research on decay rates.
01:52We've buried bodies at different depths.
01:54We've buried them with clothing or no clothing.
01:57We have buried bodies wrapped in plastic to see what that will do.
02:02We put bodies on the ground.
02:03We put them in the shade, in the sun.
02:07People are sometimes surprised when they meet me dealing with dead bodies like this and
02:13so forth.
02:14They think I should be a ghoul or something of this nature.
02:16I do not like mourning.
02:17I do not like death.
02:19But a forensic case is a challenge to me to see if I have enough knowledge to identify
02:26that individual and find out what happened to him.
02:30There's nothing better than a dead body to make my day.
02:33This individual we are looking at now is a skeleton of an individual that we buried
03:00about five years ago.
03:03We have been interested in how far down into the soil do maggots bury to reach a decaying
03:12body.
03:14The blowfly lays its eggs.
03:16The eggs hatch into maggots.
03:17The maggots then will burrow down to the decaying body.
03:21The evidence of the change from the worm to the fly stage will be in the form of a pupil
03:28case that we will be looking for around that body.
03:33I think it's really interesting.
03:34It's one of the, you know, the only facility of its kind in the world that they study decomposure
03:38rates and I think it's really important research to learn about decomposition rates.
03:55It's fascinating to me to watch the maggots.
03:57I know that sounds disgusting but it's fascinating to me to watch them burrow into a body and
04:01kind of do their dirty work because it's just so interesting to think that one day, this
04:05is a person walking down the street, you know, you said hi to him and, you know, the next
04:09day they're out here and then a couple weeks later there's very little left because the
04:13maggots have done their job.
04:18We're going to, I want to show you pupil cases.
04:21We didn't see these this morning and I just want to make sure that you all know what pupil
04:24cases are.
04:26We've had bodies in the back of these cars.
04:28The maggots have a growth period.
04:31This is where they will leave the body.
04:33They will seek a dark place.
04:36These are the pupil cases.
04:37These are the cases in which the maggot metamorphoses or changes from the worm to the fly stage.
04:43You see that on a body.
04:46That means that individual's been dead somewhere between about 14 to about 18 days.
04:51So it takes about 14 to 18 days for the blow flies to go through this process.
04:57So that's a good age indicator.
05:00Smell was a bit disconcerting at first but you do get used to it after a little while.
05:04You just have to keep in mind that these were human beings and they do deserve respect.
05:09Some people I know have a little bit harder time with them.
05:13They see them, they see them clothed, they see some of the features and it really gets
05:16to them.
05:17With me, I've just accepted the fact that these people have donated their body and it's
05:22merely a vessel that is no longer occupied.
05:25Okay, okay, good, alright.
05:44The first question the police ask you when you go to a scene is not who is that individual
05:50but how long have they been there.
05:53Distance and time and geography have all combined for me to begin the study of decay
06:01rates in humans.
06:04If you have an individual who is killed, normally the forensic pathologist will do an autopsy
06:10on that body.
06:11But let's say you're not found immediately and you're in a stage of decay and or you're
06:16a skeleton.
06:17Well, the expertise of the forensic anthropologist is skeletal remains and when you become a
06:23skeleton that's when we get called in to identify the cases.
06:28I'm occasionally asked what's the most famous case you've done and the most famous case
06:33would be the remains of the Lindbergh child.
06:36Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly from New York to Paris.
06:40This would have been in the late 1920s and his first child was kidnapped in 1932, was
06:48held for ransom and the ransom was paid but the baby was never released to the family.
06:54And then Bruno Hauptmann was the man who was convicted and executed for this kidnapping.
07:00About a month and a half after the kidnapping, they found a child in an advanced stage of
07:06decay.
07:07Now, whether it is Lindbergh's son or not, there's no way of knowing this.
07:13The only way they have of identifying it is the clothing that was worn.
07:17Now today, clothing is not a positive identification mechanism.
07:22Lindbergh insisted that his son be cremated.
07:25The police go back to the scene.
07:27They rake up 10 barrels of material.
07:30They go through all those 10 barrels of debris and they find 13 bones.
07:34Dr. Krogman and I are the only two forensic anthropologists that ever looked at this material.
07:40I think it was Lindbergh's child.
07:43The age fits.
07:46Everything fits.
07:47There's no inconsistencies and so I think it was probably the Lindbergh child.
07:54While revisiting cases of the past, Dr. Bass is also a major influence of the detectives
08:01of the present and the future.
08:06I think it's just kind of a state of mind once you get used to it and working with it
08:11and realize that it is important work and you tend to not focus on, you know, this is
08:18a person, this is, you know, and focus on the fact that this is important research.
08:22Sixty-five percent of the practicing forensic anthropologists in the United States are my
08:28students.
08:29If you look at the literature or you call a police department and say, hey, I want to
08:33know how long a body's been dead, 90 percent of the time they're going to tell you to call
08:39Bill Banks.
08:42Accolades to a crime fighter whose powers are beyond bizarre.
08:51Now that you've had your fill of the bizarre, it's time to conclude our meal and digest
08:58what we have seen.
09:00We trust you've had a generous helping of the weird cuisine we've whipped up for you
09:06and that it's all left a pleasant taste in your mouth.
09:11The entree of strange things we have seen has certainly given us something to chew on.
09:18We hope you will leave us with fond memories of our darkly delicious treats, garnished
09:24with spicy tidbits and scrumptious samplings that are always beyond bizarre.