Inside San Marcos body farm

SAN MARCOS, Texas — There's a ranch on the outskirts of San Marcos, protected by barbed-wire fences to keep out curiosity seekers.

You have to know what you're looking for, but it's there: the body farm, where people who donated their bodies to science are decomposing.

"That's one of the things we very much emphasize, is the respect for these people," Dr. Daniel Wescott says.

And out of respect for the people and their families, Fox San Antonio is only giving you glimpses of their remains.

"They're all part of different projects," Dr. Wescott says. "We have people from all over the world that do research."

He runs what's formally known as the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University. It's one of just six body farms in the country. The people who donated their bodies all wanted to contribute to scientific research.

"They are looking for kind of a natural way of decomposing," Dr. Wescott says. "There's no money exchanged at all."

Sticks in the ground and tags on trees help his team keep track of about 60 bodies exposed to often sweltering elements.

"You would think that we would now everything there is to know about how people decompose," Dr. Wescott says. "It turns out, the more we do research, the more we know very little."

Some bodies are decomposing in controlled cages. Others simulate crime scenes, with bodies rolled up in tarps. And with some, simply the bones remain.

It can be gruesome to look at, but it's also real-world experience for students who want to work in criminal justice.

"If you find this skeleton, can we identify this individual," Dr. Wescott says. "And then, if this was a homicide, can we figure out that it was a homicide? Can those clues actually lead to an arrest of a person?"

San Antonio police have brought new cadets to the farm to show them decomposing bodies for the first time, and let them experience the reality of what they'll face at crime scenes.

Many projects are part of actual police investigations.

"When we get back to the lab, I'll show you," Dr. Wescott says.

At the lab, students are cleaning bones and piecing together skeletons. When Fox San Antonio visited, students were examining bones of immigrants who died after crossing the border. Recently, they worked to identify victims of the Memorial Day flood in Wimberley.

"That is the goal of all of this research," Dr. Wescott says. "Whether it's some kind of a mass disaster or a crime scene or whatever it is - bringing closure to these families."

The body farm is not a final resting place. The skeletons become part of the center's permanent collection in hopes they might one day unlock a mystery and give grieving families answers.

"Even if what we find is not necessarily what they want to find, it's still important that they know what happened," Dr. Wescott says.