Question: how long does it take for a human body to decompose into a skeleton?

Angela Stokes answered on 11 Nov 2014:

Hi _bethnicholls_
An interesting question…..are you thinking of becoming a forensic scientist?
If you take a human body and leave it outside without embalming it or putting it in a coffin it will take about a year to decompose to bones. If you put it in a coffin underground it will take much longer. Also the conditions in the earth will alter the time too, things decompose faster in warmer weather than in cold, in water the decomposition is also slowed down.

Forensic scientists are skilled at using the stage of decomposition of a body to work out when it died.