Development of the first UK Forensic Taphonomy Facility; interdisciplinary cadaver decomposition research to provide a multidisciplinary approach to death scene reconstruction.

This project will, for the first time in the UK, examine the effects of a freshwater environment on a piglet cadaver, and the cadaver’s effect on that ecosystem in a multidisciplinary way, combining microbiology, entomology, anthropology, chemistry and geophysics. Beyond forensic applications, including baseline research data, CSI and search and rescue training, this research may impact human health studies, particularly into contamination of water sources, thus the scope of the project proposed is of national and international significance.