Secret Destination sets SHSU forensics apart from most programs

This semester's series in the Houstonian about secret destinations continues (Feb. 18) with some words about the body farm:

The Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility (STAFS) is perhaps one of the most unusual places in Texas considering that it is one out of four locations in the United States of America.

STAFS, informally known as the “body farm,” is housed under the college of criminal justice and used to aid research, education and law enforcement training in forensic anthropology. STAFS is a willed bodied program where each body that is donated is considered an anatomical gift used strictly for research.

When the anatomical gifts are donated at the time of death they can be used for medical research for things like anatomy or fine-scale microsurgery, or can be donated to the STAFS facility. At STAFS, the gifts are used as research for a variety of students such as forensic, criminal justice, biology and chemistry majors.

Law enforcement agents can also take classes at the facility that are offered for detectives and crime scene investigators. The STAFS facility also educates teachers from schools other than the university that they can teach forensic classes.