"Body farm"

Deep in the heart of Texas.

Texas State University’s plan to build the nation’s largest “body farm” of cadavers has been delayed over concerns that buzzards drawn to the area could endanger nearby planes. The university, in San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio, had hoped to begin burying bodies later this year on a 17-acre site near the San Marcos Municipal Airport. But after meeting with the airport’s commission on Tuesday, the university dropped the plan. The site was to have included vulture-proof cages to protect exposed bodies. The farms are used by scientists to study human decomposition to help the police better determine time and manner of death in crimes.