Picture this: you wake up bright and early, ready to start your first day of university. The sun is shining and the clouds part to reveal the clear and beautiful bright blue sky. You skip along the pathway as you make your way to your first class, but wait–you stop in your tracks. Is that? Is that A BODY? Meet Dr. Wescott–the director of the forensics anthropology department at Texas State University–the keeper of aforementioned bodies.
While it may seem strange for most university science programs to have a field dedicated to decomposing bodies, to many students and professors at Texas State University, this isn’t strange at all! In fact, it's an important feature to one of the most interesting science departments–the forensics anthropology department! But, what is forensics anthropology? In simple terms, it is the study of human remains (particularly the human skeleton) in relation to crime scene investigations. That's why having a body farm can be so vital to educating future anthropologists–and why the existence of the “body farm” or “body ranch” is so crucial to the forensics anthropology program at Texas State University. In addition to this it also helps law enforcement officers, forensics anthropologists, and medical personnel obtain more knowledge on the decomposition and recovery of human remains. Additionally it helps researchers better understand the post mortem interval of bodies after death and other patterns of human decay.
Here at Texas State University the “body ranch” is one of 7 body farms in the United States and is by far the largest (by acreage). It was first started in 2008 and is still a thriving program to this day, with about 650 bodies on site and 1,500 people pre-registered to donate their bodies as of 2023. But why on earth would someone be interested in watching the dead decay?
In our interview, Dr. Wescott explained that his interest in this field started early–back when he was a kid and back when he was in highschool…
Dr. Wescott: I took an anthropology class when I was in high school and I didn’t really know much about it. I didn’t even think that there was a career in it. [When] I got out of the army and I started college, I started taking anthropology classes… But I’ve always been interested in bones–all my life. If I found a dead animal skeleton I would collect it and try to find out what it was and stuff like that. So I’ve always been fascinated with bones.
Interviewer: Since discovering your love for anthropology, I know you decided to pursue academia and become a professor. What do students learn in your classes? And what is your curriculum?
Dr. Wescott: Right now, I just teach a PhD level proposal writing class–I teach them how to write grant proposals. But a lot of what I would've taught in the past would have been osteology–where you learn your bone anatomy–and then skeletal methods, so methods for analyzing bones[and] how you collect data. I also do a lot of CT scanning. Another one would be bone pathology–learning what diseases affect bone and how bone responds to that. And then bone biology, which is how bone would react to mechanical stimuli and why it responds the way it does. Those would be the courses that I would probably focus on.
Interviewer: I saw that Texas State University has a body farm. I found this pretty interesting. How do students use it for hands-on experiences within the field and how do you maintain it?
Dr. Wescott: Okay, so one side of it is the research side, where students have a research project and they use the facility to address their research questions. [These questions] are usually associated with how bodies decompose or what kind of factors affect decomposition. That's where we get our skull refractions from as well. The other way is a lot of maintenance type things. They have to go out and collect all the skeletons and they [also] have to go out and process those skeletons. Things of that nature will give them a lot of hands-on experience. We also do a lot of law enforcement training [where] we teach law enforcement how to find graves…and how to excavate graves. Our students get involved with all that as well.
Interviewer: Going a little bit away from what you teach academically, I know that a lot of professors have time where they can work on some more personal projects. What personal projects are you currently working on, and what do you hope to gain from those projects?
Dr. Wescott: One of the projects that I’m [doing] is looking at how obesity affects the skeleton. And there's a couple reasons for that. One of the reasons is that I’m very interested in how the skeleton reacts to mechanical loading (and what causes them to make those changes). Obesity is good for that [because] we get a lot of people that are obese and a lot of the time we have a record of how long they've been obese. We also know that obese individuals–especially morbidly obese individuals–have a slightly different gait pattern, so they walk with their knees a little less bent, with a wider stance, and shorter steps so we can make some predictions about how the bone should respond. And then [we] look to see if it does, and in some cases, it responds exactly like you'd expect it to, and sometimes it doesn't–which gives us some clues on how we can study some other stuff. One of the things for me that I found really interesting is [the fact that] adults can undergo what is called “modeling,” which is actually a shape change in the bone. Most scientists have argued that most “modeling” goes on in childhood–which is true–but we're seeing that in obese individuals, which kind of changes how even medical doctors and everyone else thinks about bone response.
Interviewer: I know I already kind of asked this, but what impact do you hope to make with your research?
Dr. Wescott: I guess just to chip away at the knowledge and to gain a little bit more here and there. I don’t think there's a whole lot of people that make some–you know–huge theoretical change, but most of the time those come from lots of little studies like this and getting that knowledge. So–and especially being in academia–part of my impact is that I’m also teaching the future generations that are gonna keep chipping away at this, some of whom might actually be the ones that have the big theoretical breakthrough.
Interviewer: My last question for you is what do you hope to tell future students that are interested in forensics anthropology?
Dr.Wescott thinks and pauses a bit for answering.
Dr. Wescott: I guess to do the parts of it that you find enjoyable and guide your career aways from the parts that you don't. You know the nice thing about doing a job like this is that I–almost everyday–enjoy what I do. [And] I–almost everyday–learn something new. [And] I have–like I said–a large skeletal collection that I can work with. You know it's just kind of a dream come true. I think that any time you're going to spend as much time and money on a job or education-wise,it should be something that you very much enjoy doing. So I guess that's where I would stay with that.
Interviewer: That’s pretty much all the questions I had for you! Hopefully I didn’t take up too much of your time or mess up your schedule.
Dr. Wescott: You did not. I very much enjoyed talking to you, and that's a part of what I’m supposed to be doing.
After thanking Dr. Wescott, I ended our interview and let Dr. Wescott get back to his work.
Though Dr. Wescott’s work as an anthropology professor may seem a bit unnerving, to Dr. Wescott it's merely scientific. He gets to study what he loves while also teaching what he loves to the next generation. And though the “Body Ranch” is by no means the place for the next murder mystery, it can definitely help solve future crimes that may occur, both by teaching new students and also by helping researchers gain more information on the subject itself. So, the next time you find yourself in a field of decaying human remains, just continue skipping along, knowing that this facility is actually there to help better scientific research for generations to come. That is…unless you're not at the “Body Ranch”...or if you're not in Texas at all…in that case it's probably best to stop skipping and call the police.
Citation:
“Forensic Anthropology Research Facility.” Forensic Anthropology Center : Texas State University, Texas State University, 6 Oct. 2020, www.txst.edu/anthropology/facts/labs/farf.html#:~:text=The%20Texas%20State%20facility%20is,interval%20or%20time%20since%20death.
Daniel J Wescott. “Discussion on Forensics Anthropology Professor Profession.” 19 Feb. 2025.
Olsen, Lise. “Learning from the Dead.” The Texas Observer, 7 May 2024, www.texasobserver.org/body-ranch-postcard-texas-state-forensic-anthropology/.
Richmond, Callie. “Slideshow: Scenes from Texas State’s Body Farm.” The Texas Tribune, The Texas Tribune, 25 July 2015, www.texastribune.org/2015/07/25/slideshow-body-farm/.
