During the stages of death, the body goes through a series of processes that can help determine cause of death. What happens during corpse decomposition? Also! What are your options for after you die?
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During the stages of death, the body goes through a series of processes that can help determine cause of death. What happens during corpse decomposition? Also! What are your options for after you die?
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Marissa:The uninformed body is that of a 36 year old well developed well nourished Caucasian female, weighing 117 pounds and measuring 65 and a half inches in length. The scalp is covered with bleached blond hair, the eyes are blue. The fixed lividity is noted in the face, neck, chest, upper portions of arms as the right side of the abdomen. The faint lividity which disappears upon pressure is noted in the back and posterior aspect of the arms and legs. A slight aquatic area is noted in the left hip and left side of the lower back the breast shows no significant lesion there is a horizontal three inch long surgical scar in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. A super pubic surgical scar measuring five inches in length is noted now that the final toxicological report and that of the psychiatric consultants have been received and considered it is my conclusion that the death of Marilyn Monroe was caused by a self administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide. The final tox illogical report reveals that the barbituates previously reported as a lethal dose has been positively identified as nimbi tall by a toxicologist in the course of completing his routine examination. The toxicologist Mr. Raymond Abernathy discovered in addition to the Nembutal present a large dose of chlorohydrate this has been a excerpt from the statement of theater de curvy, MD, the chief medical examiner in the corner of the county of Los Angeles, which was on August 17 1962. This report notes the early stages of death for a celebrity who famously died at the height of her fame. When someone dies, the body goes through stages that ultimately end in dust. Join us as we add another entry into this our macabrepedia.
Matthew:Hello and welcome to macabrepedia marriage of true crime and the truly bizarre we are your hosts Matthew and Marissa today we will be traveling down the course of time and the stages of death from the moments of death to decomposition and the dust that you eventually turn into the first stage of death is paler mortis is the paleness that occurs in the skin though it is possibly more noticeable in some skin tones and others it is something that does happen in all people. So let's for this example, let's assume that it is a all of ranged skin tone, paler Mortis begins immediately after the heart stops, blood stops reaching the capillaries as death sets in this happens within minutes, really seconds of death is mostly useless for determine the time of death unless the body was found within 20 or 30 minutes,
Marissa:right? I mean, you're going to get paled in certain situations regardless, so
Matthew:yeah, and in with many of these, these stages of death, the environment plays a very large part in a lot of this, I mean, you're if you were like in cold weather, or hot weather, the power Mortis would obviously be changed because you're just normal ambient temperature changes changes whether or not your capillaries at the surface level of your skin are going to be more dilated or not. The second stage of death is the Algor mortis. This is going to be when the body temperature begins to change post-mortem. This is when the body begins to reach a balance between the ambient temperature and the normal 98.6 degree body temperature that a normal person would have this is a steady decline. Obviously ambient temperature plays a large part in this certainly if you were you know left in the desert versus left and on the top of Mount Everest, your body was is obviously going to to to reach that acclimated temperature based on your environment at a different rate. But it is pretty a pretty steady change.
Marissa:Yeah, it's a good way to measure time of death. They know the environmental factors. If it's within a certain amount of time, of course,
Matthew:I do believe that they actually measure this this temperature as the the the standard is rectal temperature. So they generally go that way. I mean,
Marissa:that makes sense, though. I mean, some people are found with their mouths open. It's kind of that would not be as I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I
Matthew:mean, I guess I can't just stab you with a thermometer and use one of those, I guess Herky
Marissa:thermometers. No, I think it's rectal is probably the way to go. That's a new quote out of context. Oh, and it takes about 12 hours about I think for the human body to actually be cool to the touch. And then 24 hours until it's cool By rectal thermometer,
Matthew:again based on the ambient temperature,
Marissa:yes, average conditions, right.
Matthew:So the third stage of death, which is one of the more recognizable and more popular to be brought into movies, TV books, whatever I can Oh, this one you probably do because it is often it's also physically pretty easy to detect but what do you what do you think stage three would be rigor mortis? It is it is indeed rigor mortis. This is when the muscles post mortem go rigid, they go rigid, and they start around the face and the limbs, of course of mammals. And this happens within three or four hours after death. It only lasts about eight to 10 hours. Yeah, doesn't last forever. No, it goes away. It is something that's you it's not it's not like, it's not like trying to they're not like stiff as a board. What it really is, is it's it's a it's a it's when the calcium levels change within the muscles, because that's kind of where contractions of muscles. It's an exchange called the Krebs cycle of the energy system. And all that stuff, where the calcium buildup pulls, makes all the muscles go taut. And then it'll eventually break down as enzymes begin to destroy the cells within and in doing so that the it'll loosen back up, the degree of rigor mortis can be used to determine and approximate time of death and also the positioning. Because sometimes a body if it's been moved after death, the body will go rigid in the the form that it was moved in.
Marissa:Yeah, you'd also be able to see the darkening of the skin. The way that the body would say it would have you know if it was like lying on its back, won't the back of your head. Okay, but I'll pass that but like Herrity about the time I found my neighbor's cat.
Matthew:No. Did you pose it while it was going rigid? No. Ah.
Marissa:So my neighbor's had a bunch of animals. And one of them was a little short, like a Bobtail, shorter show cat. And one day I saw her laying out in the yard and I went out there to just kind of like, Hey, what are you doing? Because I like cats. And I reached over and started pet her and she was stiff as a board. Like she was stiff when I pet her and I was like, Oh crap. And like, I immediately as soon as I felt her, I like jerked back and turned around and ran back into the house. And then I called the neighbor and was like, Laura, I'm sorry, but I think your cat might be dead. And then of course, it looked out and she was like crying, sobbing and ran over to get the cat and I was like, Oh my God. I knew she was dead. The moment I touched her, like, yeah, that was my first experience with touching a dead body. I guess.
Matthew:I mean, once. I mean, that was probably rigor mortis, because it seems like yeah, neighbor kept kept an eye on on, on her animals, for sure. But yeah, yeah, they're definitely stiff. But yeah, if you you if you had actually decided to try to puppet that cat, you probably would have been able to bend and move her with a little bit of effort there.
Marissa:I wasn't that twisted? Well, I'm not saying I won't be but I wasn't at the time for sure.
Matthew:There is also something that there is like an instantaneous rigor mortis that may happen. So I said that rigor mortis sets in a few hours afterwards, but there is sometimes a instantaneous rigor mortis or a cadaveric spasm. This is sometimes seen but very rare, sometimes seen in people who were clinging to something at the time of death where they're you know, their hands are still gripping upon something that they were trying to pull themselves out of something from or in some cases, trigger warning. Cases of suicide the weapon is still gripped in the hand of the person who killed themselves or something along those lines. This is not something that is very easy to replicate. It also needs to have like a witness like right there to see it actually happened. So then the next stage as you had kind of already bulldoze your way into would be liver mortis. And it's also something that was referenced in the opening that we had here with the Marilyn Monroe with the lividity of her body. This is a darkening as the blood begins to pool. So the but that is basically you can tell the position of the body as the blood begins to pool based on gravity. So if you were to find a body that had been standing up like the fingers, and the legs would be dark, but the rest of them would be paler in Color
Marissa:Yeah, once the blood start stops pumping, the bloods gonna go down, gravity's gonna pull it down to the lowest part of the body.
Matthew:And that is that that's one of the, probably one of the best ways to decide the time of death, as well as the position of death is, is where this starts to cool, because it's not something like I don't know, you can't like, turn the corpse upside down and then have the blood like, pool somewhere else, like where where it is, is where it kind of, kind of stays at that time. And the liver mortise, that starts within like a half hour after death. It's not normally observable for a few hours. But I mean, you know, once once your once your, your heart stops pumping and starts stops forcing it to go into the, the parts of the body and through the circulatory system, it just kind of pools were allies. Also, one of the things about that, too, with, with the liver mortise is, that's a way to see if someone was bound, or if they had been strangled, or something along those lines. Because if you had something tight around a portion of your body, and then it's not taken off until post mortem,
Marissa:there, it'll be marks,
Matthew:but it'll be pale. And after all of these, and kind of simultaneous with this is when the body begins to putrefy. The fifth stage of death, this kind of fall, this is we're obviously referring to animal and human post mortem. So this is this is when decomposition begins to happen and the proteins begin to break down and enzymes begin to just run rampant. It doesn't take too long, just a few days if, if a body is unattended to at this point, before they begin to excrete fluids from all available openings such as their nostrils, their mouths, their rectum. This is when the body begins to liquefy. This normally happens pretty quickly with organic tissues as is unrelated
Marissa:to the moment of death where all of your muscles relax, once your brain shuts off and people spit up, correct, yes,
Matthew:this is hours later. Yeah, a lot of times when when at the moment of death or or something along within the first few moments. That's where like the death rattle and stuff happens as your body begins to relax. And there's like sometimes a gurgling or something along this line. But with purification, we're talking like your body your organs are liquefying and beginning to be processed by bacteria and enzymes bacteria begins to move in and they begin to digest you on a cellular level.
Marissa:A lot of these the ones that are already in your body
Matthew:oh yeah, this isn't like new stuff or not. We haven't even gotten into like bloat flies and carry and carry and birds and whatnot that are
Marissa:now your own microbiome, like all of the tiny little organisms that live within your body to help digestion and other forms and other you know, they will begin to eat your organs.
Matthew:Yeah, this is a process called a autolysis which is the breaking down of tissues of the body's own internal chemicals and enzymes. This is part of purification the which is well I guess autolysis is when your body is doing it to itself purification is when bacteria is doing it your body normally with enzymes is constantly breaking and rebuilding your cells and then with autolysis at what at the time of death your body is no longer rebuilding those cells so it's just destroying itself destroying itself through enzymes. Purification is when bacteria fungus which is like you said already in your body just is running unchecked throughout
Marissa:this thing to digest except for yourself. That point right and
Matthew:this is when you begin to decay and this is the odor begin to spout from the animal tissue. The prime decomposers are bacteria and fungus. Though there are obviously you know you've seen roadkill you've if you're around where we are there's vultures and buzzards that are pulling apart. Yeah, roadkill these are the scavengers they play an important part but you know insects and mites and all those little creepy crawlers that would get into your, into your body. If it was just left to its natural. Its natural means they do play a big part. But a lot of your breakdown really comes on a microbial level. Let's assume that before your body got to this point you you're you're you've been found or you know he may have died within a hospital or whatever whatever the situation may be, but presumably, under normal circumstances, quote unquote Your body would be prepared in some fashion. This would be through a mortician or some kind of funerary service. Obviously there, depending on where you are in the world, there's a lot of different options that may be available to you. But taking it from the United States perspective, obviously you have cremation you have traditional burial, natural burial. Unfortunately, you cannot take a body put it into a boat and then fire arrows at it. Like you like the poetic Edda is of the Vikings, which honestly may not even be real, but whatever. I think it's awesome and low there. Do I see my my brothers my sisters? No. Okay. 13th warrior. That's the movie moment for the episode.
Marissa:So yeah, was cremation. You may or may not be involved first. And then they'll take you
Matthew:which, you know, and I don't, I am fairly certain that you do not have to be embalmed before cremation. I know. And I'm, I'm, I know for certain my mom was involved before cremation mine was too. Yeah, and I think they were like, Oops, yeah. Oh, yeah, come on. That's just an upcharge that's just an upcharge comment below if you or whatever reach out to us however you know this all goes at the end of thing reach out to us on macabrepedia Twitter blahblah. But if you've ever had somebody or you know was cremated and they did the embalming anyways, even though they knew that they were going to get cremated. I think it's a racket. It's just an upcharge.
Marissa:I agree with that. Although I can see it as I think sometimes they do it to try to keep the body more preserved. What the one the family comes and visits. It depends, man, I
Matthew:don't care what your excuses No, no. Why are you gonna do that? You know, fill it full of formaldehyde and then go ahead and just light it on fire. Come on. Now. I'll tell you what, if I was at a restaurant, they bring me they bring me some french fries that I didn't order. They're not going to charge me for those French fries. No matter if I eat them or not like no, don't charge me for that you weren't supposed to do it man.
Marissa:Creation actually is is very old process dates from at least 17,000 years ago, which is kind of nuts. Actually. They found somebody called the Mongo woman at a with the lake Mongo remains this was discovered in 1969. They actually believe it dates back. Like I said, 17,000 years back, and are the oldest HomoSapiens to be found on the Australian continent and they were cremated, which is kind of crazy.
Matthew:17,000 Yeah, that's 1700 we're talking 17,000. I would have figured 17,000 years ago, you just kind of left them out there for the birds, apparently.
Marissa:But so it's yeah, it's a very old process. But we still do it. What we do today, we put the body in a cremator which, you know, crematorium crematory all these words for the same thing, some places, you can actually do a funeral for it. And actually, although this was not an option for me, you can sometimes go to the cremation yourself. And watch as they put the body within the crematory.
Matthew:I think that that's something that's a bit newer, because of the people believing that like, the ashes they got weren't really their loved ones and whatnot.
Marissa:Yeah, I can see that today. The temperatures that are within this industrial furnace actually reach and this is going to be in Fahrenheit, which is what we use in the US. So 1600 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot.
Matthew:It's hot. Okay, so it was like that the Celsius is hot. If it's
Marissa:in Celsius, it's like 871 292 Very hot. They use fuels like oil, natural gas and propane. And they ended up actually getting about 5.3 pounds of remains, or cremains of the person for each body off of
Matthew:100 to 200 pound person. Yeah, down to five pounds of ash.
Marissa:Yeah, so it's not all ash but there are usually little bits of bone in there also. Sometimes they grind them into powder but not always.
Matthew:Yeah, there's I think there was some kind of situation where there was like somebody who was who had like a, an infant that had been cremated and they found a tooth and they're like, my child wasn't old enough to have teeth and all that stuff. So I think that's when they kind of started doing that more frequently where they would grind it all down just to make sure they didn't have that because you have your teeth are just up there and dropped.
Marissa:But the ever seen a x ray of a baby school, you can kind of see the teeth. It's really really crazy.
Matthew:Yeah, I believe I have, but I also think that they're my mom's ashes still have bone chips.
Marissa:Yeah. Tell me I haven't dug through my mom's ashes. But I've seen yours. Hey, there's
Matthew:a moment for macabrepedia as we sift through our mother's ashes, and I really gone through there with a fine tooth comb to see what see what friends magnets I can find but yeah, it burns out all the all of the burns the body down to to a pile of ash that can then be put into a beautiful urn, or just a cardboard box with a with a with a plastic bag inside of it.
Marissa:I wonder if the titanium melts at a titanium plate in her head. Get that back.
Matthew:I think that that is something that is covered on Ask a Mortician that she shares yet she does talk about the what happens to body parts after that. But like fillings and stuff, I'm pretty sure just like, they're just gonna be in your ashes. Yeah, but yeah, as far as like hips and whatnot. I think they are just sifted out at the end. Because I think that they, they just they just get white hot. And then they take them out. I don't know what the melting point of titanium is. But I'm sure there was just a plate that at the end, they just kind of. You're out. Yeah, they just toss that out. I'm sure. You actually
Marissa:read a book a few years ago called Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and other lessons from the crematory it's by Caitlin dowdy,
Matthew:who is also the asker mortician person who from YouTube that I referenced she She's hilarious. She's
Marissa:fantastic. Honestly, definitely recommend her. This book is fantastic. But her YouTube videos are hilarious. Very informative.
Matthew:Yeah, if you if you if you're on YouTube watching this, you just switch over there instead. You don't even come to this one. She's way better at this than us.
Marissa:Well, she is but finish this first. Now she she's fantastic. And during this book, she actually talks about one time when they were cremating a morbidly obese person. And she said that the the fat started to melt when they were creating the body and it started to gush out of the door of the furnace. And it got everywhere all over the floor. It took them forever to clean us up. And that would be a nightmare to clean up. I mean, I never thought about I never thought about something like that. So they
Matthew:didn't either. I'm sure they know they didn't it wasn't gonna be an issue. But I mean, you got to think I mean the amount of heat that that thing's putting out there that it's probably pretty well contained
Marissa:and it's gonna quickly start to cut like melt the fat in the body and if there's a lot of it it's gonna not be able to be contained by the furnace of furnaces not big enough. So I think they actually have special furnaces now for morbidly obese people.
Matthew:Yeah, they do sound good. But if you think that you're only going to have something like that happened to you if you were cremated, you are sadly mistaken because you're gonna turn to liquid regardless of whether or not you are cremated or go through Yeah,
Marissa:it's just a matter of how long it takes. Right Yeah,
Matthew:I mean, you're not gonna you're not gonna necessarily turn into clarified butter. But you will be even if you are embalmed Well I guess we should take a step back. So then there's also traditional burial and natural burial the big difference between the two of those is traditional burial that's what most people are going to be familiar with embalming you get the embalming you pick out a really expensive padded comfy looking casket
Marissa:that will get buried in the ground that's gonna be ever seen again. Yeah, that's
Matthew:gonna be generally put that that container is going to then be put into another container, which is Oh, yeah, ball into the ground. Yeah, so you get put into a concrete vault. On top of that,
Marissa:you know what, even if you're okay, so, this recently happened to bury my mom's ashes. I have a little bit but we buried the majority of our mom's ashes. And we even put that in a vault. They're gonna put you in a vault basically.
Matthew:Yeah, they're gonna put you in a vault. I mean, again, I feel like that's an upcharge because from my understanding, the reason they put you into a vault is also for the the ground to not sag as like your casket begins to deteriorate. Even though those things are supposed to be guaranteed for X amount of years. I don't know. I don't know what all of our listeners are going to do when they die. I will say who cares? Like who cares? Like why are you going to try to preserve yourself for time in memoriam? Like why like why are you going to try to preserve yourself for that long? Give yourself back but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. traditional burial body embalmed, cleaned up organs, generally taken out, stuffed with stuff inside and then not nitrate like mummification and all that obviously, modification goes back 1000s of years as well. But, but yeah, so your body is preserved as best as possible and then placed into a casket or coffin. The difference is basically the shape. If you have like a rectangular burial case, then the rectangle is a casket. A was what people really
Marissa:use now. Right? The
Matthew:ones that are kind of more like, you know, traditional like what you see Dracula coming out of a coffin. That's the one that's a little more Diamond D shaped
Marissa:by a mortician in the family we may end up getting him on here to answer some of these questions
Matthew:but as far as the then you're put into the you're involved you're put into the the coffin or casket you're put into a vault and put it in the ground the vault I believe is partially for security purposes and partially because of the not having like the the top Cavan on it as it began as the the casket or coffin whatever begins to decay could be wrong with that. But one year, but you can still liquefy you will still liquefy even if you've been involved it just happens much slower. There are and then if you're also you have the option of being put into a mausoleum, which is when you walk in, and they're all of the everyone's like it like little cubby holes of death, your little death cubbies. And you're still putting kind of a vault in what still decay for sure. Yeah, but you're put inside of the vault. Well, yeah, you do decay and actually there's plumbing that goes through the walls
Marissa:and venting to get the gases out. So as
Matthew:you go fi you will begin to pour out of your coffin in your coffin, which I believe this is a technical term. Again, shout out to Caitlin from asking mortician but it is a it's called coffin burping. Yeah, as the seals pop and the gases are released from there there are reports of of of coffins having like wedges popped into their into their through the the gaskets along the along the edges so that they can actually release release the gases easier because if you've ever used a pressure cooker, that's basically what a coffin is. And you can get like these double reinforced gaskets around your your coffin so that it it tries to keep that from happening as much
Marissa:but as your body decays gases are released and those gases have to go somewhere got to
Matthew:go somewhere telling you Better out than in wicker coffin or casket I think I like casket wicker casket just a body wrapped in a linen shoud shroud no embalming or actually well Okay, so now what we're talking what I'm describing now is natural burial, natural burial all biodegradable, no involving no chemicals. reason is is because not because of the this is normally an option that is utilized by people who are more environmentally conscious.
Marissa:Yeah. For for religious purposes. Some some faiths require you to be buried for a certain amount of time sure,
Matthew:but it's also it's you're not because when you're involved, the embalming fluid is not super healthy for the for the soil around and as your body decays and everything you're obviously going to seep out into the into the water supplies and the ground around. So natural burials just like any any animal that dies out in the woods or something it just decomposes and everything takes takes its takes its turn there, but natural burial would be no embalming wrapped in a linen trout placed into a wick wicker or a natural material coffin or casket and then lowered into a grave the body is allowed to naturally decompose as is this is this is actually legal in all 50 states but it is something that is a little harder to find but it does allow for a lot of families to be more involved because a lot of these natural burials the even the grave itself is dug by family members.
Marissa:Yes Actually what I read this is a point of interest I was not aware of said that every funeral home in the US must actually offer this form of green burial it's called a direct burial may not be advertised but they are required to offer it is basically means you'd be buried in a small wood or cardboard container and not being bombed but you do have to be buried within 24 hours which can be difficult sometimes of course if you don't have a grave already a grave site and stuff like that, but
Matthew:that seems kind of silly has to be within 24 hours
Marissa:well you're gonna start decaying I guess that's you're gonna start to kill I know it's a murder. Health issues bureaucracy man Come on.
Matthew:Hello. That is also another reason why they have like wakes and stuff so
Marissa:yes, and that's typically not going to be within 24 hours we
Matthew:know if you're having awake within 24 hours of a death like they knew you were gonna die. Yeah, they had the you have to have some some of your P's and Q's in there or everyone around there as a murder suspect. Also with the newer forms of green or natural burials, green sheet, rescue use the term green burial but it's the same idea as a natural burial. But they use a they, they there's this new like, fungus laced?
Marissa:Yes, that's really cool
Matthew:that they they wrap you in and then they kind of just let you it's supposed to increase the amount of fungus it's like preceded with fungal spores.
Marissa:It uses your body as fuel to grow. If
Matthew:you know what I'm telling you, I would really be interested in hearing what all of everyone's thoughts are on their post mortem situation if you want to be cremated, natural burial fungal wrap
Marissa:via choice, and I doubt I'll get this choice but I would like to do like the the fungal wrap. There's also something called Water cremation. We didn't talk about that. But it's yeah, it's cremation. But it's not by fire. It's basically just getting blasted with water.
Matthew:Yeah, no, I actually a person I used to work with she left the job that I'm at right now to go become a water cremator. For animals. That's cool. Yeah. Which is just like, yeah, it's it's like, from what I understand super high powered, like pressure, pressurized water that just blasts you in and nothing. You get like a jug of sludge at the
Marissa:end? No, I think they dry it out.
Matthew:As much, I guess we should have done a little research on that. And
Marissa:I just thought about, you know, we've gone over these stages of death. And we've commented already about how it can change based upon your environment. If you're in an arctic environment, or if you're in the desert, or if you're just in a tropical environment, or at the bottom of Lake Superior, or in the bottom of Lake Superior, you're going to have different stages of decay. And because of this, they actually have set up these body farms in various areas. The first one was in the University of Tennessee, they have a body farm there. And it was set up in 1980 by a forensic anthropologist, basically what they do there is they take bodies that were donated for this reason. And they put them in various, you know, spaces and different scenarios to see how they decay at what rate and what happens to them, so that they can study this so that they can learn more about how to gauge Time Time of death. And interestingly, I mean, Tennessee is it's it's a climate, but there are other many other climates in the world. So since they've opened this one, they've attempted to open some other ones. And there are a few not many, though, Tennessee is the big one, they actually set up one in Western Carolina. So that's in North Carolina, actually not that far. From here. It's part of the Western Carolina human identification laboratory. And actually, it was opened in 2006. They use that to study decay, and they also train cadaver dogs there when cadaver dogs of course are trained to smell the scent of a dead human. And if they're if they're around what and they can lead people to
Matthew:a road trip. Yeah, I'm sure they don't really just so they won't just let you know. We're media though, right?
Marissa:Probably not popular enough.
Matthew:To spread the word tell all your friends about macabrepedia so that we can go to a body farm.
Marissa:Yeah, so there are several in the US now. There's actually one in Florida, which is kind of cool. I mean, you know, Florida is much hotter than it is in Tennessee. So that helps them to identify how certain you know, bodies would decay in a hotter habitat like that it was opened in 2018. So that one's pretty new. They opened it with just five bodies, and it's the first and only one in Florida. So there's also one in Australia, the Australian facility for taphonomic experimental research, and that was outside Sydney, Australia. So you know, like I said, everywhere has its own environment. And it's really it's a good idea to have these different body farms in different countries that have different environmental factors because then we can learn more about how a body would decay there. Yeah, is
Matthew:there like a blanket like checklist for like, I would like to donate donate my body to science? Like do you get to choose whether or not it's like going to be sent to a body farm so that dogs can try to sniff your corpse out of out of a wooded area? Or do you get to do you get to choose? Thank you do
Marissa:so actually for the University of Tennessee or body farm, you actually can choose to donate specifically to there. If you want to donate your body there are over 100 bodies are donated to every year, not a sponsor. Some individuals actually register before they die, to be donated and others are donated by their families after they die. So that's interesting. You can also choose to donate your body to science. Side note, if you want to do that you can donate to a medical facility if you would like in which case they will use your body for up to two years. And if you decide that you want this, you can choose this. They will after they're done. They will spruce up the body cremate it and then give it back to your loved ones.
Matthew:I want like to have the ability to choose like The experiments I want done I mean,
Marissa:I don't think it gets that specific. You can however donate your body to be experimented on and it will they some companies can dissect your body and send parts all over. I used to work for a company and one facility that they had would actually test human body parts in crash tests.
Matthew:So yeah, I want to be a crash test dummy for the first little bit you know, he smashed me up a little bit then you can also dissect me and Frankenstein me up however you want. If you feel like cremating me that's also fine. I'll remember ideally, my since you had given yours the way that I would like to die, would or not die. My body to be treated would be to be placed in a shallow, very large grave, like a like a 15 foot circumference circle about eight inches deep and Lord and then I want to have a huge stone with a flat bottom dropped from a great height on to me, you just want to splatter everywhere. Well, that's what that's why I'm about a few few inches deep so there's a splash guard so that when I get Gallagher into the ground, it sprays out to the side and then I want someone to come in and well when I say someone I would invite the population of the world to come and write lies upon things that I've never actually done on my grave site.
Marissa:Is this before or after your body gets cleaned up? No,
Matthew:no the no I'm gonna be under that bass rock. Drop a big rock. It splatters me and then goes and either chisels rights or spray paints lies about my life on there. Okay. of your choosing
Marissa:you you were an excellent podcaster
Matthew:I said lies excellent lover. No see how see how quick she was to come to my come to my aid of being alive. They're awesome. Yeah, you might want to cut that note. As always, thank you for listening and joining us. You can reach out to us with your choice for how you would like to die or be remembered or whatever your traditions buried. Maybe
Marissa:we're on Twitter and Facebook and macabrepedia and we're also on Instagram at macabrepedia pod and if you do have any ideas or suggestions or just want to reach out you can contact us at macabrepedia pod@gmail.com See we didn't even get to talk about Henry the Eighth exploding
Matthew:everywhere explodes whales explode. As always. Thank you for joining us. Join us next week as we add another entry into this our PDF