The Forensic Anthropology Research Farm at the Freeman Ranch, commonly known as the 'body farm,' is somewhat of a local mystery, and community members are dying to know what goes on there– pun fully intended. The research done on decomposing bodies and bones has assisted in solving crimes in many ways, but that is not all that goes on at the farm; law enforcement and firefighter training is also conducted at the FARF.
Texas State University’s Forensic Anthropology Center Director Danny Wescott, also a professor of anthropology at the university, said he received his undergraduate and master's degree at Wichita State University and his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Tennessee. Wescott said the FARF is 26 acres and is the largest location of its kind in the world in terms of acreage. He said all of the bodies are donated specifically to the farm either by request of the individual or their next of kin. He added that, at any given time, there are 70 to 80 decomposing remains on site. Depending on the research protocol, he said the bodies can be caged or left in the open; the uncaged bodies can give information on how far bones will be scattered by scavengers, so that police know how far to go when conducting a search.
Wescott described a decomposing body as a nutrient rich ecological zone with various organisms attempting to extract as many of the nutrients as possible before it dries up, which is what the decomposition process is, in a nutshell–a drying out process.
