Jon Jefferson ( born November 13, 1955 in St Joseph ) is an author and television documentary filmmaker. Jefferson has written ten novels in the Body Farm series under the pen name Jefferson Bass, in consultation with renowned forensic anthropologist William M. Bass, as well as two non fiction books about Bass’s life and forensic cases.

Prior to writing books, Jefferson worked as a staff science writer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as a freelance magazine and newspaper journalist; and as a television documentary writer/producer. His writings have been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today and Popular Science, and have been broadcast on NPR. His documentaries include programs for the A&E Network, The History Chanel, and the Oxygen Network. He also wrote and directed for the National Geographic Channel a two part documentary- Biography of a Corpse and Anatomy of a Corpse – about the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, which is known as the “Body Farm.” His book Carved in Bone reached the New York Times Best Seller List.