The understanding of how different environmental burials may affect the decomposition rate of human remains

Human taphonomy, within a forensic setting, explores the decomposition of human remains. This field has proved highly valuable within the criminal justice system, where some high-profile cases have included Naya Rivera amongst others. However, within a practical setting there are multiple different environments encountered within forensic practice which introduce individual limitations. Of primary concern are burial environments. The purpose of the study was to explore how different burial environments affected the decomposition process. In order to understand this limitation a study was set up whereby pig was used as an analogue for human decomposition with this being placed within seven different burial environments specifically, sand, soil and water (chapter three), over a four-week burial period. The study found that the epidermis, adipose, muscle and weight of the meat sample were the primary factors varying during the decomposition process. Where certain environments showed to have an accelerated effect on decomposition (chapter three).
To further investigate burial environments, a survey was developed and distributed to various forensic professionals from different regions of the world. Survey responses were used to explore standard methods and techniques for the recovery of human remains within sand, soil and water based burial circumstances (chapter four). The survey was used to understand how different regions of the world experience diverse environments and the difficulties encountered by practitioners. From the responses it was concluded that different regions of the world experience a broad range of environmental factors which need special consideration. Interestingly, there appeared to be inconsistencies of fully developed standard protocols, which will ultimately have numerous implications within forensic investigation.
This thesis aims to address some of these challenges and provide further insight into the effect of burial environments on decomposition rates.