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Chapter 1: What is the body farm at Texas State University?
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You can use Fetch for any vet in the U.S. and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet.com slash save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com slash save. This week, we wanted to share one of our very favorite episodes. We released it back in 2017, and people still write to us about it all the time. And I still think about the day we recorded it.
What is that you're holding?
This is a mandible to jawbone. And that skull is in half. Yeah, this person was autopsied. So this is an autopsy cut. Interesting. So that they can examine the brain.
There's a little bag here that says hands and feet. Do those usually get separated because it's... It's just there.
Lots of little small bones. So we put them in a separate bag just so that they don't get scattered out throughout the box. It's easier to keep them together.
This is Dr. Daniel Westcott, the director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, about 30 miles from Austin. We met with him in a nondescript building, a warehouse really, so plain we drove right past it twice. But when you get out of the car and walk to the door, you see a small paper sign with a vulture and a skull, and you know you found it.
there are very few places in the world that do what they do here.
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Chapter 2: How does decomposition research contribute to forensic science?
Yeah. What is it? It's not blood. What does it mean?
No, it's just a combination of all the internal organs that have decomposed.
This is a big place.
It is a big place. All right, so we turn between the first two telephones.
The bodies are placed on Freeman Ranch, which sits off a small highway just a few miles from the lab. Once you pass through the gates, you see what I only imagine you might see on any number of ranches in Texas. Cactus, tall green grass, and cows. We just kept driving down a dirt road, taking a left or right whenever we were told to, and then we arrived.
The only difference between this part of the ranch and any other was the giant fence and locked gate.
So our first stop will be at the shed there to put on booties.
Okay.
In reality, what the booties are for is so that in case you actually step in something, you don't drag it back to your car.
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Chapter 3: What types of experiments are conducted with donated bodies?
The flowers are back, yeah.
Dr. Westcott is working on a new project that uses drones and infrared cameras to detect how much organic material is in the soil. If law enforcement is trying to locate a missing person in a huge area, 5000 acres, they can use the drone technology to narrow things down, looking for spots with a lot of organic material. They're also working with police dogs.
Most cadaver dogs are trained with small tissue samples. But it turns out the dogs don't always know how to react when they encounter a whole body. So police bring their dogs to the ranch to get used to finding the real thing. These different experiments are spread around the ranch, and Texas State collaborates with other facilities.
Dr. Westcott showed us an experiment where three different centers across the country placed a body on the exact same day to compare regional differences. So the body that we're looking at right there seems to me to be rather new.
Yeah, this individual was probably placed yesterday.
Oh, that's a brand new body. Yes. Well, isn't that something? We'll be right back. Support for Criminal comes from Bombas. If your sock drawer could use an upgrade, Bombas has a range of well-designed socks. Like their sport socks, which are made with a cushioned, sweat-wicking design that also stops them from sliding down your foot while you're in motion. And Bombas has more than socks.
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On the day we visited, they were in the process of excavating the skeletons. The excavation was being done by more than 20 students, all women. A lot of this work is done by women. Dr. Westcott is the only male director in the country, and almost all of his colleagues and his graduate students are women. Dr. Kate Spradley was in charge of the excavation.
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Chapter 4: Why do people choose to donate their bodies for research?
Yeah, it's a beautiful place to be.
On our way out, we made one last stop. The same stop that all the bodies make before they leave the ranch, the processing lab.
What does the kettle do?
It just simmers them for a little bit. It loosens up all the soft tissue. Yes, they really are just giant soup kettles. But then... What's the crock pot for? Small hands and feet and stuff like that, and small bones, so a lot of times it's easier to finish them off in there. And then, so they're cooked in here, and then they're brought over here, and they scrub them all down.
What are these little guys down here? Tips of your fingers. That's a fingertip.
Yep.
And these are all toes, and you can see the little teeny toes. And then these little things right there, these are actually extras. They're not even included in the 206.
It looks like wood. This bone almost looks like wood. Yeah.
It takes on the color of the soil.
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