Odor Analysis of Decomposing Buried Human Remains*

Abstract

This study, conducted at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility (ARF), lists and ranks the primary chemical constituents which define the odor of decomposition of human remains as detected at the soil surface of shallow burial sites. Triple sorbent traps were used to collect air samples in the field and revealed eight major classes of chemicals which now contain 478 specific volatile compounds associated with burial decomposition. Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) and were collected below and above the body, and at the soil surface of 1.5–3.5 ft. (0.46–1.07 m) deep burial sites of four individuals over a 4‐year time span. New data were incorporated into the previously established Decompositional Odor Analysis (DOA) Database providing identification, chemical trends, and semi‐quantitation of chemicals for evaluation. This research identifies the “odor signatures” unique to the decomposition of buried human remains with projected ramifications on human remains detection canine training procedures and in the development of field portable analytical instruments which can be used to locate human remains in shallow burial sites.

Forensic Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds from Decomposed Remains in a Soil Environment

“…A variety of collection methods are available including solid-phase microextraction (SPME) (Hoffman et al 2009 ;Kalinova et al 2009 ;DeGreeff and Furton 2011 ;Cablk et al 2012 ), thermal desorption (TD) (Vass et al 2004 ;Statheropoulos et al 2005Statheropoulos et al , 2007Vass et al 2008 ;Stadler et al 2013 ) and solvent desorption Dekeirsschieter et al 2009Dekeirsschieter et al , 2012. Although all of these sampling methods utilize a solid sorbent to trap the VOCs they each have particular advantages and disadvantages.…”

“…However, the interaction between VOCs and the environment also dictates which compounds are available within the headspace of decomposition. The majority of decomposition VOC studies have been conducted within soil environments (Vass et al 2004(Vass et al , 2008Dekeirsschieter et al 2009 ;Brasseur et al 2012 ;Dekeirsschieter et al 2012 ;Stadler et al 2013 ) however the impact of the soil on the overall profi le has received little attention. In a burial situation, the compounds produced by the remains must travel through the soil column in order to be available at the surface for olfaction/detection (Vass et al 2004 ;Brasseur et al 2012 ).…”

“…Research on the odour signatures of static odorants such as explosives, have indicated that canines may be responding to the most abundant compounds in an odour profi le (Johnston 1999 ;Lorenzo et al 2003 ). Recognition of complicated and dynamic target odours such as decomposition may require a variety of compounds in addition to the dominant ones as many of the compounds identifi ed within the headspace of decomposition are not unique to decomposition and can be found from a variety of sources (Vass et al 2008 ). In order to gain a better understanding of decomposition odour and evaluate the uniqueness of the entire profi le, an in depth analysis of these compounds from a variety of death assemblages is required.…”

“…VOCs can be generally defi ned as any compound with an appreciable vapour pressure and can have a variety of chemical properties (ASTM International 2004 ). The degradation of soft tissue produces hundreds of decomposition VOCs from numerous chemical classes including alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes/alkenes, aromatics, carboxylic acids, esters, ethers, halogens, ketones, nitrogen and sulfur compounds (Vass et al 2004 ;Statheropoulos et al 2005Statheropoulos et al , 2007Boumba et al 2008 ;Vass et al 2008 ;Dekeirsschieter et al 2009 ;DeGreeff and Furton 2011 ;Paczkowski and Schutz 2011 ;Statheropoulos et al 2011 ;Brasseur et al 2012 ;Cablk et al 2012 ;Dekeirsschieter et al 2012 ;Stadler et al 2013 ). Although similar chemical classes have been reported in a variety of studies the complexity of these samples has precluded the complete characterisation of decomposition odour (Statheropoulos et al 2011 ;Dekeirsschieter et al 2012 ).…”

“…The high degree of variability in the reported compounds is in part due to the range of decomposition environments studied. Decomposition VOCs have been analysed from buried remains and grave soil (Vass et al 2004(Vass et al , 2008Brasseur et al 2012 ;Vass 2012 ), deposition on the soil surface (Dekeirsschieter et al 2009Stadler et al 2013 ), case studies from aqueous environments (Statheropoulos et al 2005(Statheropoulos et al , 2007), enclosed spaces (Statheropoulos et al 2011 ) and individual tissue samples (Hoffman et al 2009 ;Cablk et al 2012 ;). Each of these environments has a unique set of environmental conditions that will affect the production and availability of VOCs.…”