Green Burials: Working With the Dead
Colloquially known as a body farm, the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) is a research facility that studies the decomposition of human bodies after death. Only eight such facilities exist in the United States and the largest one is operated by Texas State University at Freeman Ranch, just 30 miles outside Austin.
Each body that arrives at the FARF on Freeman Ranch is placed methodically on the 26 acre plot of land, to be observed and reported on as part of a myriad of decomposition research studies.
In varying stages of decomposition, some bodies are positioned sitting up, others lying down. Some bodies are clothed, others undressed. Some bodies are covered with a tarp or encapsulated within wire cages, others, known as vulture research projects, are completely open to the elements.
In one case, a body was placed underneath a mattress to study the decomposition of a body if it were hidden under heavy, synthetic elements. These specific studies allow forensic scientists to understand how bodies decompose in various real-life scenarios.
Most of the hands-on research done at FARF is conducted by doctoral students at Texas State University. The student researchers retrieve the bodies, transport them to and from the field where decomposition data is collected and scrub down the bones once the body has fully decomposed. The process leaves little room for the faint of heart. Once scrubbed and boxed and labeled, skeletons are transported back to an on-campus lab to be studied further.
Many students who come to work at the FARF have never encountered a dead body before. Kari Helgeson, another doctoral research student at FARF, said despite five years of experience, certain aspects of the job still remain difficult.
“The thing that freaks me out is when I have to take them apart and put them in the Crock-Pot,” Helgeson said.
The Crock-Pot Helgeson is referring to is is used in a process called maceration, similar to the process used to break down fruit into jelly-like filling for pies and other desserts, the Crock-Pot is also best tool for researchers have found for breaking apart tissue so they can pull the bones of a skeleton apart for further research. Siegert, who works alongside Helgeson, is unbothered by maceration or any other aspects of the decomposition research they doctoral students are tasked with doing. For her, however, intake is still hard. “They look like a person still. It’s like holding hands with somebody that you love or care about,” Siegert said.
Dr. Daniel Wescott is director of FARF and oversees decomposition reseach conducted there. Wescott said he believes that understanding the process of decomposition and what happens to the human body after death helps shed light on some of the unknown aspects of death and as a result can alleviate much of the fear surrounding it.
“One of the most frightening things about death for people is the unknown.”
The process of studying decomposition is as valuable to the living as it is to the dead. In addition to studying decomposition, FARF trains local law enforcement for tasks such as finding and excavating bodies without losing or compromising evidence that could be useful during an autopsy. Wescott said the research facility offers a number of training courses to law-enforcement and other interested agencies.
The law enforcement training at FARF has helped solve several murders, including the high-profile murder case of millionaire Allan Kowalski in 2008. After a cadaver dog led Kerr County criminal investigators to a pile of human remains buried under black-stone rock, Captain Carol L. Twiss, Chief Criminal Investigator in Kerr County, contacted FARF researchers to help excavate the body. “We actually solved the murder and arrested ten or 15 people associated with the theft of his property,” Twiss said.
When FARF researchers are off the field, bodies on the ranch are observed through field cameras which are placed over each body. In one situation, the cameras captured the first-ever footage of a deer eating human remains. Well-known herbivores, deer never displayed carnivorous tendencies prior to the unprecedented footage recorded at the FARF in January 2015. The footage was subject to scientific marvel; garnering attention from National Geographic and other renowned scientific journals.
A paper published by FARF researchers, Lauren Meckel, Chloe McDaneld and Wescott explained that deer may gnaw on human bones to possibly obtain minerals absent in their diet. The popularity of the paper peaked public interest in unique burials and since, more people have chosen to donate their bodies to FARF. The increase in donors is also partly due to the facility’s proximity to Austin, where residents are now equally obsessed with "green burials" as they are with green living.
FARF accepts two kinds of donations: living and next-of-kin. Living donors must pre-register to donate their bodies to the research center prior to death and next-of-kin donors are those donated by family members who make the decision to donate their loved ones after they have died.
As he paced gingerly around the field of bodies to avoid stepping on displaced bones, Wescott spoke about his own burial plans. Though unbothered by it process , Wescott understands that many of his research students are still learning deeply about decomposition and it’s relation to life and death. In doing so, still coming to terms with death as it affects their own lives. As such, he plans to donate his to the University of Tennessee instead of the FARF at Freeman Ranch, where his students would have to process his body.
“—If I were to die on the way home, it’s my students that would have to pick up my body and my students that would have to place me. While that doesn’t bother me, I know it would bother my students.”