MARQUETTE, MI-- Progress is being made on the world’s first cold-climate body farm in Marquette.
Dr. Jane Wankmiller is the director of Northern Michigan University’s Forensic Research Outdoor Station—or FROST. She says it’s actually two facilities, comprising a one-acre outdoor research area and an indoor lab. Wankmiller says the outdoor facility will likely be prepared by the end of October, but it won’t be operational until the lab is complete early next year.
She notes FROST won’t function as a “potter’s field.”
“The people whose remains we use for the research out at the site will be specifically donated to this program by either the people themselves or their next of kin,” she says. “It’s not something that’s going to be a substitute for unclaimed or unidentified remains.”
Wankmiller says they’ll likely start by getting baseline data on the area’s freeze/thaw cycle and how it affects decomposition. She says the specimens will be used to solve questions often encountered by law enforcement.
“We have a number of projects lined up that really stem from real-life police cases and things that have been observed, and questions have arisen as to how this came into being,” she says.
Wankmiller says FROST will fill gaps in forensic knowledge and help train law enforcement.
She says NMU is the perfect place for the facility, as the university is very forward-thinking and student-research-driven.