Body decomposition in water

Georgina said:

I'd like somebody to fall into a river in early September, drown, get caught under a small dock somehow, and be found the following March. More likely in late September than early. The reason is the water will be colder. And it won't come out until the very end of March. Bodies get snagged by various things all the time in rivers. What will happen is the snow melt and rain will raise the level of the river and increase its flow rate to the point where the current forces the body downstream.

This is in the northern hemisphere (Pennsylvania, USA), so the body would be there during winter when the river might freeze over. The river won't freeze solid, but will have icy patches, especially in slower moving parts. Under the dock is unlikely to freeze. It doesn't really matter, as the water temperature will be close to freezing, if not a bit below.

My fear is that after six months, there wouldn't be much of a body to find. I imagine it varies through situational factors, but am I right in thinking that most of the flesh would be gone, and the bones would end up just drifting away? Probably not. As I said, people disappear in rivers in the fall all the time and their bodies are found the next spring. Decomposition would be very retarded because of the low water temperature, and virtually no decomposition would happen in December, January, and February. There would also be a reduction in fish activity during the winter. Probably more destruction would come about because of fish nibbles. Body would probably be more or less recognizable as human, but would cause the finder to have nightmares for years to come.

If so, is there any way you can see that I could make this work? Maybe have the body caught in some sort of netting or something under the dock? Though why there would be netting under a dock, I don't know. Have it caught by a post for the dock. It really doesn't take much to snag a piece of clothing, or hang on a nude body. Docks will usually have a few branches that have gotten caught under them. Then when the current increases in spring, it forces stuff out.

This is YA, so I won't be getting into the specifics of the body's condition in the story. I'd just like to make sure I'm writing something plausible. I'm sure I know someone who recovered a body in this situation, but I haven't looked around to give you the gorier details. But I know a kid did this last fall in Vermont, and it just happens consistently. Finding a body in a river is a crap shoot no matter what. They tend to go under and get snagged. In the spring, all sorts of stuff come out of them.

Thank you, and cheers!

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Georgina said:

I'd like somebody to fall into a river in early September, drown, get caught under a small dock somehow, and be found the following March.

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jclarkdawe said:

whole bunch of stuff

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CatharsisChild said:

This thread creeps me out.

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Georgina said:

Thank you all for the further thoughts. Who knew there were scarier things than falling into the water and drowning? (Like falling into the water, drowning and being eaten by a bear.)

I've been writing my body-finding scenes, and I have a couple of follow-up questions that I'm hoping somebody in this thread can answer.

Let's assume the body is caught under a small dock, snagged on a column or in some tree branches. Maybe 3m (9ft) down or so. Very rarely would a dock be in three meters of water. Docks cost money, measured by running feet. In other words, the further out you build a dock the more it costs. Therefore, docks are usually only built into water deep enough to moor a boat to and maybe dive from. Unless the banks are very steep, you're unlikely to see a dock in that deep water. Most docks will be in water only about two meters or six feet. Somebody jumped into the water nearby and thought they saw something, so the police have been called. Remember you have this scheduled for spring, shortly after ice out. Anybody likely to jump in the water is probably going to be under the influence and not likely to notice anything. Instead, I'd have the person pushed off the dock in some horseplay, fall into the water, start thrashing around, and dislodge the body. It's a tried and true formula, but it works. Also remember that visibility in river water can be very murky.

1 :: How would the police go about bringing the body to the surface? I understand when they're rescuing a body from deep inside an underwater cave system, they put the body in a bag before bringing it upwards, but since this is only a couple of meters, would they still do that? Or perhaps strap it to some kind of gurney? Or would they just free it and swim it upwards? The reason cave rescues put the body in a bag is so the limbs don't flop around. Police only recover bodies in major cities. Small town police departments don't have dive teams. Most likely the body would be recovered by Pennsylvania's Fish & Game Department. Most likely the body would be shallow enough so that people would wade in, in exposure suits (wet suits). Body would be dragged to shore, then placed in a body bag. Then the body would be placed in a Stokes basket. Go to Litter (rescue basket). By the way, it is just referred to as a "Stokes." Stokes are a lot easier to move over rough terrain than a gurney. Bystanders would be probably evicted from the scene.

2 :: Given the body has been in the water for six months, would they be able to tell in the post-mortem examination that he was still alive when he fell into the water? Main question is whether the chest cavity is contaiminated by scavengers. If the chest cavity is whole, the ME will easily be able to tell. Beyond that, once scavengers get into the body, it can become more and more difficult.

For scavengers you're going to have to decide on the flow rate of the river. Catfish are more likely to attack a body than trout, but prefer a lot slower moving water. Snapping turtles can do a number on carcasses, but don't like moving water.

Thanks again, and cheers.

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Georgina said:

Thank you all for the continued answers. I really appreciate you helping me get this right.

I understand now that what I came up with isn't really going to work, and I've spent the day trying to work out some solutions. Unfortunately, I changed the way the boy's body is found after I'd written most of the story, which is making this a lot harder than it should be.

(Outlining. I hear it's good.)

Jim, did you mean the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission? I found some stuff on their website that suggested, but did not outright say, that this would be their kind of job. Otherwise, there is the Pennsylvania Game Commission, but they seem to mostly do wildlife. I don't live in Pennsylvania, so I don't know for sure, but my guess from their websites would be the first. I was just pretty sure it would not be the State Police. It would be better for me if the local police could just handle it, though. More likely the fire department would have the expertise than the police. Fire departments deal with rescuing people. Say one of them just happened (cough) to have scuba experience, and say we make it shallower like you suggest. It's possible a local fire department might have a dive team. But if the body is under a dock, you've reduced the visibility argument. Further, many rivers are murky enough that visibility is down to inches. Two feet is actually pretty good for a river. Nearly all fire departments have exposure suits. If the water is shallow enough, you use an exposure suit, which have heavy shoes built in, and wade out if you can. That, reaching around, including with a pole, and a flashlight can recover a lot of things. For an ice rescue drill with an exposure suit, you can look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA7i_4TH3EA&feature=related Might they bring him to the surface then, or would they definitely wait for the pros? This is going to depend a lot upon how suspicious the drowning was. If there is any possibility this is a homicide or suicide, you call in everybody. They'll want whatever pictures they can get of the body as it is found.

I'll also see if I can find a copy of that book that SmuggySmith mentions.

Cheers.

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