Cadaver decomposition remains

Holland, A. D. (2000). An investigation into the effect of soft tissue decomposition on short-term degradation of associated textiles, using pig cadavers as an analogue for human remains. Unpublished M.Sc. Dissertation, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK. 

The majority of experimental studies in this field have used pig carcasses as models for human decomposition. However, one study has been reported that used human cadavers in an experimental capacity (Rodriguez and Bass 1985). The study conducted in Knoxville, Tennessee, involved the burial of six unembalmed human cadavers at varying depths and subsequent exhumation at varying intervals. Carrion insect activity was only observed on the bodies buried at a depth of approximately 30 cm (1 ft.). The insects were identified as larvae, pupae, and adults of the family Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae. It was speculated that the adult flies laid their eggs in the small crevices in the soils above the remains and that the larvae then burrowed to the cadaver where further development ensued. The study was able to demonstrate that the depth at which the cadaver was buried directly affected access by carrion insects and subsequently the rate of decomposition. 

Tooth enamel represents one of the most resistant skeletal tissues to post-depositional decay in a burial environment (Duric, Rakocevic, and Tuller 2004), and, as a result, teeth are often the only identifying feature of a skeleton to remain. As decomposition proceeds, the loss of soft tissue around the mandible allows the exposed teeth to become dislodged from their original anatomical position. Postmortem tooth loss has been described as a possible indicator of PMI and appears to be dependent on age, periodontal health, seasonality, and location of the body placement (McKeown and Bennett 1995). Cadavers that are deposited in the summer months will undergo a more rapid process of soft-tissue decomposition and thus lose teeth more rapidly than bodies that decompose in the autumn or winter months. Similarly, a cadaver exposed to direct sunlight, or even deposited in a shaded area, will decompose and lose teeth more rapidly than a cadaver that has been buried. The... 

The terrestrial environment has been much studied as a decomposition environment for materials of little forensic value, such as leaf litter or dead roots. These provide the basic methods and framework for studying and understanding decomposition of materials in soils. It is only in recent years that this has been applied to forensic taphonomy, in which studies have been conducted with mammalian tissues and cadavers. The burial environment is a complex and dynamic system of interdependent chemical, physical, and biological processes. These processes influence, and are influenced by, the inclusion of a body and its subsequent decay. Though this book deals with what is known in this context, much still remains to be discovered, understood, and applied to forensic science. 

But dogs remained the best search tool for discovering where a body was buried. Their sensitive noses could detect the taint of the ses released during decomposition through several feet of soil, and good cadaver dogs had even been known to bcate bodies buried over a century before. 

---