Warning: The photos below might be disturbing for some readers.

In San Marcos (7Miles) – Texas, lies a 16-acre ranch called The Freeman Ranch that has 70 or more decaying human bodies. These Bodies are scattered all over the field.

The Freeman Ranch AKA the “Body Farm” is part of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University. Its main purpose is to study how the human body decomposes. Several times a month, new dead bodies are delivered to the ranch. Researchers and graduate students study upon them. The bodies that scattered in this farm are donated ones due to several incidents.These are left out in the open by researchers to see the changing effects due to different weather conditions. The terrain is also settled accordingly. Some are intentionally left in the hot sun, while others are put in different conditions.

Most are protected by two-foot-high metal cages, but some are fully exposed. The better understanding of the process of decomposition helps assist criminal investigations.

Observations made at body farms have been keys to puzzling questions like “how long ago the person died.” The body goes through three stages of decomposition, from the grisly beginning to the spare, dried-out end.

Stages of Decomposition

The first stage begins shortly after death, during this stage, the body bloats out because the bacteria inside release gases as they consume the body’s carbon.



Next is advanced decay. This happens after the body bursts and releases decomposition fluids.

Finally is the dry decay stage, which comes when nearly all flesh on the body is consumed.

This stage is usually reached after several weeks. This is what a body looks like after several weeks when left without a cage. This is the result due to the voraciously pickling of vultures and other wildlife animals and insects.

Figuring out how long a recent body has been dead is fairly easy, but for those that have been lying around for months,calculating the exact time is very difficult.

What they do might be extremely morbid and terrifying because of the corpses being handled in such a way. Disturbing the dead isn’t their intent but for the sake of science and humanity, they have to bear this extreme job.