dead body discovered scene

BrumBall · Mar 13, 2012

Hi everyone,

My main character for my WIP starts out working at a funeral home and I'm hoping someone can confirm that this scene is plausible and realistic.

A body (dead for around a week) is found at a house. The deceased lady was a recluse, hence no friends or family realising she hadn't been seen for a week. The neighbour who makes the discovery rings the police and ambulance. The doctor confirms the lady died of natural causes and there are no suspicious circumstances. The neighbour volunteers to sort out the funeral arrangements and they call a local funeral home to collect the body.

The MC arrives in an unmarked van, puts the body into a bodybag, onto a trolley and into the van. He takes it back to the mortuary. I will beef up the scene with the sights, smells, main character's thoughts etc, mainly using inspiration from this site http://funeralstories.wordpress.com/ especially the Busted Ankles story.

Is the scene (and blog that I am getting info/inspiration from) realistic? I don't see why it wouldn't be but I don't know much about this sort of thing.

Another question if I may. I need the MC to get sacked soon after this scene. What sort of sackable offence could he commit at a funeral home that doesn't involve the dead bodies?

Any other info on funeral homes that you may have would be great. This is only a small part near the start of my novel but I like to get things as real as possible!

Thank you

jclarkdawe · Mar 13, 2012

BrumBall said:
Hi everyone,

My main character for my WIP starts out working at a funeral home and I'm hoping someone can confirm that this scene is plausible and realistic.

A body (dead for around a week) is found at a house. The deceased lady was a recluse, hence no friends or family realising she hadn't been seen for a week. The neighbour who makes the discovery rings the police and ambulance. The neighbor wouldn't get far into the house before the odor hit him/her. The doctor confirms the lady died of natural causes and there are no suspicious circumstances. Question is whether this is a timely death. By and large, healthy people don't die. Sick ones do. If you have a fatal disease and die, it's considered a timely death, and as long as there is nothing suspicious, you're good to go. If you don't have a fatal disease and die, you go to the morgue and get an autopsy. If it's a timely death, it's called by the ambulance crew in consultation with their medical control at the emergency department. No doctor shows up at the scene. Cause of death is usually listed as heart failure caused by complications of whatever disease the person had. The neighbour volunteers to sort out the funeral arrangements and they call a local funeral home to collect the body.

The MC arrives in an unmarked van, puts the body into a bodybag, onto a trolley and into the van. Usually takes two people. He takes it back to the mortuary. I will beef up the scene with the sights, smells, main character's thoughts etc, mainly using inspiration from this site http://funeralstories.wordpress.com/ especially the Busted Ankles story.

Is the scene (and blog that I am getting info/inspiration from) realistic? I don't see why it wouldn't be but I don't know much about this sort of thing.

Another question if I may. I need the MC to get sacked soon after this scene. What sort of sackable offence could he commit at a funeral home that doesn't involve the dead bodies? Stealing supplies.

Any other info on funeral homes that you may have would be great. This is only a small part near the start of my novel but I like to get things as real as possible!

Thank you

Body condition will depend upon weight and body fat of the victim, air temperature, humidity, and pets. Smell will be somewhere between bad and next to impossible to ignore. It will waft out when the door is opened like it is in solid layers. Make sure the post-mortem lividity matches the body's position.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

BrumBall · Mar 13, 2012

That's brilliant Jim, thank you.

Michael Davis · Mar 14, 2012

One thing I do know about corpses left unprocessed for a couple days. The stench is unbearable. Most detective and cop shows ignore that reality, except for Bones. If the body is discovered say in cool weather within hours, no problem. If its hot and there for a while, play up the revolting smell angle. JMTCW

Steve Collins · Mar 14, 2012

Jim is quite correct. In the UK the only time a body will not undergo a Post mortem is if the deceased was being treated by a doctor for a terminal illness.

Jewellery (rings) are often removed at the Funeral Home there have been incidents in the UK when they have been stolen by staff, on one occassion even a Police Officer the Coroners Officer.

BrumBall · Mar 14, 2012

Michael Davis said:
One thing I do know about corpses left unprocessed for a couple days. The stench is unbearable. Most detective and cop shows ignore that reality, except for Bones. If the body is discovered say in cool weather within hours, no problem. If its hot and there for a while, play up the revolting smell angle. JMTCW

Thanks Michael, I will play up the revolting stench!

Steve Collins said:
Jim is quite correct. In the UK the only time a body will not undergo a Post mortem is if the deceased was being treated by a doctor for a terminal illness.

Jewellery (rings) are often removed at the Funeral Home there have been incidents in the UK when they have been stolen by staff, on one occassion even a Police Officer the Coroners Officer.

Interesting. That could be the reason for the MC's dismissal. Thanks Steve.

nikkidj · Mar 14, 2012

It may vary by states, but in Indiana, the coroner has the option to take the case or not. In most cases of an elderly person dying, they're not going to take the case, nor will they take the case if it's someone with a known life-threatening illness. It does NOT have to be terminal, just known to cause death.

When the ambulance crew calls the patient deceased, they'll call the coroner deputy on call, and that person will decide whether or not to take the case. If they decide to take it (say, the patient was young and healthy, or there are signs of trauma) the body will be taken to the morgue. If they decline the case, the funeral home will come and pick up the body. Most of the funeral homes that come to us only send one worker, but that probably depends on the home and the size of the deceased.

Sometimes the coroner's deputy will come to the scene to examine it themselves, and then make the decision of whether to take the case or not. But usually, they decide based on a description of the deceased and the environment the deceased was found in.

And anything warmer than a freezer is going to cause major decomposition over the course of the week. We're talking smells and bugs. They can tell how long the person has been dead by the type of larvae and adult bugs found in/on the body. Just another interesting tidbit.

Maryn · Mar 14, 2012

I agree on the smell being an unbearable stench in fairly short order, unless it's refrigerator-cold in the house. My walking route had a dead--dog? raccoon?--a few summers back and the smell within about 50 feet literally induced vomiting. Even after it was removed, the smell remained strong for weeks, despite a normal amount of rain.

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't see a neighbor making the funeral arrangements unless she is also volunteering to pay for them--and unless and until the police confirm the woman has no relatives, they won't allow someone else to make such decisions, will they? (What if she gets it cremated when her estranged, neglectful children don't want that? Or what if she has it buried in a place they find unacceptable? What if she orders a nice casket, then doesn't pay for it after it's in the ground? This sort of thing leads to lawsuits.)

Maryn, thinking aloud

jclarkdawe · Mar 14, 2012

Maryn's right and you have a big problem, which I didn't want to mention because I didn't have a clue how to get around it. But Maryn's comments made me figure out your solution.

Police come in, and find dead body. Now they have to notify someone. Many people have a desk or something similar where they keep important papers. Many people also have a phone book. So police start searching the obvious sources.

The simple approach would be to have a desk with an envelope that says "Important Papers." Inside the envelope, besides birth certificate, marriage certificate, whatever, is a pre-paid funeral plan. But there are other ways from here to there. Just get rid of the neighbor deciding, unless it's vital to your plot.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

BrumBall · Mar 14, 2012

Good advice everyone. Who takes over arranging the funeral doesn't really matter, I think I just made up the neighbour bit as I was writing the OP. My main character won't arrive until after all those decisions have been made anyway and those details won't be important to him. He just has to pick up the body and take it back to the mortuary. Oh, and have a conversation with the neighbour about the deceased which impacts on a later scene which is the main reason why this scene exists in the first place.

I've decided that the MC's work partner is going to get him sacked by stealing from the dead bodies and making it look like the MC did it. I need the audience to remain sympathetic to the MC, so I can't really have him committing crimes himself. I'll try to work out the details on this tomorrow but if anyone has ideas in this area they would be gratefully received!

dirtsider · Mar 15, 2012

There was some articles recently on a pair of reclusive twins who died that sounds similar to your situation. I don't remember much about the procedures surrounding the body pick up. What I do remember is that these twins were older (70+) so they pretty much died of age related problems. It took a few weeks before they were found after their deaths. The main focus of the articles were about how reclusive the twins were, how they spent most of their time alone in each other's company and spoke little with their neighbors. One of the follow-up articles was written because normal, every day people were able to help track down the next of kin faster than the police could've done, as the deaths were from natural causes, rather than homicide.

Thought you might be interested in that.

BrumBall · Mar 16, 2012

Thanks dirtsider, two of the main themes of the story are reclusiveness and loneliness so anything along those lines are interesting to me!

dead body discovered scene

BrumBall

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jclarkdawe

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Michael Davis

Steve Collins

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nikkidj

Maryn

Baaa!

jclarkdawe

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BrumBall

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dirtsider

Not so new, really

BrumBall

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