Autumn last year we had a call to a “sudden death” in one of our local park home sites which cater for older residents. Typical call, occupant not seen for a while and a bit of a smell at the letter box. Other officers had already first attended and got as far as just inside the front door before being beaten back by the smell and flies.
Myself and another got suited up in paper suits, masks, gloves and overshoes and had to go in, we already knew he was long dead, laying in the doorway of the living room. He had expanded, burst, rotted partially, been partially liquified by flies and heat and finally melted into the carpet with a huge gaping void where his lower bowel used to be. His face was half skull and the ‘protected’ half (that bit sandwiched between his head and the carpet and not in reach of the maggots, was basically a runny gel. I couldn’t find the eyeball (the other was gone).
The smell was overwhelming, you cannot describe it but everyone that has ever smelt it will know exactly what it is.
I had to stay in there for most of the day, I was already suited up anyway and after a while you start to desensitise to the smell. The windows were opened and the local fly population doubled as all the trapped flies slowly escaped. It was evident that the flies we let out must have been fourth or fifth generation, the floor was littered with fly corpses that must have died of old age.
The bath was full of blood and there was blodd spatted across the wall, we were sure we had a murder scene and the CSI came in as well (who was equally thrilled at having to go into this scene).
Eventually we found the true reason, although some of it is educated assumption based on what evidence we had (no entry points, no breakins, locked front door, nothing stolen or disturbed, his tablet was even still turned on with the Kandy Krush game he was playing, which gave us a rough time of death - 2 weeks earlier).
Attempted suicide, followed by accident - stay with me on this and hopefully the logic will appear.
His car had glue around the exhaust pipe and we found the hosing he had used in his wardrobe, he had assembled all his documents carefully to be found and had consumed a ‘last drink’. He had slit his wrists in the bath (you could still see the open wounds) but, and here is the guesswork, we think he had not succumbed straight away and had got out of the bath and collapsed against the wall or tripped, there he had bled out on the floor - very old blood soaked into anything goes black, a bit like tar. The physical signs at the scene matched that scenario and nothing else did. We found out later he had end-stage cancer as well.
Having the body removed was an exercise in logistics, the undertakers had to cut the carpet and take the whole thing out. I think it got cremated with him as there was no way to separate them.
Once he was out of the place and the windows stayed open, it became only mildly intolerable. The landlord had to have the floorboarding ripped out and replaced as he had seeped into that as well.
It sounds a very callous way of describing it but that is the best way to get through them and these sort of scenes never really bothered me. Besides, when I get found in a similar manner in the (hopefully) distant future it would be a comfort to know the officers had a bit of a morbid laugh at my expense.
Read other answers by Ralph King on Quora:
- Have you ever lied or exaggerated on a police report?
- What is the most unexpected or unlikely cause of death you've come across in your career as mortician, medical specialist or law enforcement officer?
-
As a Police Officer, do you agree or disagree with organizations like Copwatch/Copblock?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2bgD0LO
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