Governor Snyder signs land over to NMU for forensic anthropology lab

LANSING — Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill today, giving a lot of land to a local university to utilize for a one-of-a-kind project.

Senate Bill 119, sponsored by state Senator Tom Casperson, allows Northern Michigan University to use a 2.5 acre lot located next to the Marquette Branch Prison for the newest forensic anthropology program. The site will be used to conduct the first-time study of human decomposition in cold weather.

The new research facility will be one of eight total sites in the world that uses human remains and the first that focuses on cold-weather climate decomposition. As it stands currently, there is no base line data in regards to freezing and thawing of human remains.