Scattered, Episode 16 – The Canadian Human Decomposition Facility & The Scavenging Study

Scattered, Episode 16 is now live! Listen to find out more as I talk to Dr. Shari Forbes about her human decomposition facility in Canada and our work on the Scavenging Project. https://yvonnekjorlien.com/.../scattered-episode-16-the.../ You can listen and subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. If you would like to be involved...

Bags of Bones – a research update

It's been a while since I posted about our research project on scavenged and scattered remains. What's going on? Last year's sites: Bags of bones! The sites in the Edmonton and Calgary areas were left for about a year. Through July and August of this year, we revisited each and collected the remains, the flags,...

Odds and Sods Update

There are a few things going on. For those who have not subscribed to my newsletter, this is for you. I do try to cross-pollinate, but things get missed. Subscribe to my newsletter here. In research news: New Scattered podcast episode! I talked to Dr. Nick Marquez-Grant from Cranfield University about next of kin and...

The Effect of Wild and Domestic Animal Scavenging on Skeletal Remains

Guest post by Christine Hymanyk (See Scattered, Ep 10 for my chat with Christine about her research project.) My animal scavenging experiment was inspired by several existing studies, some of which I have listed for further reading at the end of this post. My stated purpose was to collect samples of cow rib bone that...

Scattered, Episode 10 – A Student Experiment Gone Sideways

Scattered has now reached double-digit episodes. For this, I am extremely grateful to everyone who has been a guest and to everyone who has listened. Episode 10 is an interview with an undergraduate student, Christine Hymanyk, who attempted to do a field experiment about skeletal trauma, but found out more than she bargained for about...

Last Chance – Bone Search and Recovery Course

The Bone Search and Recovery Short Course will be discontinued as of tomorrow! If you've ever wanted to deepen your knowledge of how to search for scattered remains, now is your chance. As far as I know, this is the ONLY online course in searching for scattered remains. Bone Search and Recovery Short Course on...

Scattered, Episode 9 – More Sounds of Dead Pig….

It seems that the previous episode with Amanda Johnson was a turning point for the Scattered podcast. That episode has an average of 200 downloads per day, so I want to thank everyone who listens for listening. It means the world to me that you are listening and interested in this topic! For this new...

Scattered, Episode 8 – A Chat with a Detective

What have we covered so far? Setting out pig carcasses for a study on searching for remains - check. Searching for said remains - check. How about applying this information to real contexts? How do the police approach searching for remains? What's the insider scoop on this? I talked to Amanda Johnson, Acting Detective with...

Scattered, Episode 7 – The Sound of Dead Pig….

You've read all about the searches, now listen to how we got there. Yes, it's a bit backward, mostly because producing a podcast episode takes longer than a grizzly bear scavenging on a pig carcass. Who knew? Check out the series of posts ("The Smell of Dead Pig in the Morning") that features pictures and...

The Smell of Dead Pig in the Morning: The Search, Pt IV

On August 4th, a team that consisted of Shari Forbes, a few Calgary Police Services Canine Unit officers and me, put out four pig carcasses in the wilds outside of Calgary so that we may see what scavenged upon them and eventually -- hopefully -- scattered the pigs' remains. On September 2nd, we returned, with...