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FBI agents gaining valuable experience at Body Farm

<p>Training at the Body Farm. WBIR.</p>

For decades, U.T.'s Forensic Anthropology Center has been at the forefront of forensic research and training.

We all know it as the Body Farm, and today, we got a rare chance to see the training in action.

F.B.I. agents were on the 3-acre wooded lot near U.T. Medical Center Thursday, learning the best way to search for and recover buried bodies. They also practice the best ways to gather evidence and information as they do it.

They treat it like a real-life situation..

"Once we identified the site yesterday we found that it had been undisturbed for several years and so we begin to create a grid around the area where we want to be excavating," said F.B.I. agent Leslie Copper.

Depending on the situation, it could take a few hours or several days to recover a body at the Body Farm, and each case is different..

The FBI has been training there for 17 years.

"Locating and recovering human remains for evidentiary purposes makes us better at our jobs," said Marshall Stone, Supervisory Special Agent for the F.B.I.

Law enforcement officers from all over the world have attended sessions there.

The Body Farm isn't the only place in East Tennessee this kind of training is taking place. The U.T. National Forensic Academy recently started work at a new location in rural Morgan County. It's more isolated and provides more space to expand the research. You can see that story here.

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