Why human corpses will soon fill a Northern Virginia field that is NOT a graveyard

MANASSAS, Va. (ABC7) — Five acres in Northern Virginia will soon be filled with human remains, but it's not a graveyard.

George Mason University is working on a cutting-edge forensic science program that will help investigators solve crimes.

As an FBI profiler, Mary Ellen O'Toole has interviewed the most notorious serial killers, from Ed Kemper to Gary Ridgway.

Now, instead of helping investigators search for answers, Dr. O'Toole is helping students understand forensic science as the program's director.

“A lot of the cases that I worked had victims who were left outside,” said Dr. O'Toole. “You had to understand what the environment did to these remains.”

The forensic science research and training laboratory will only be the eighth location in the world like this, and the only one in the Mid-Atlantic, creating a unique learning experience for students and local and federal law enforcement officers.

Students will study the process of human decomposition, examining the impacts from the weather to the soil to animals.

The donated bodies will come from the Virginia Department of Health.

“We want to make sure they have the cutting edge to help solve the crimes that they are responsible for,” said Dr. Anthony Falsetti, Associate Professor of Forensic Science. “Getting a precise time since death is critical, you know, it may implicate someone in a crime, and it may exonerate someone so it is absolutely critical that we use human donors.”

The five-acre site is on George Mason's Science and Technology campus in Manassas.

The GMU program is expecting to get the first human remains in the spring.

“The goal is to solve cases,” said Dr. O'Toole.

The university said it has taken measures to assure security and environmental integrity.