# crematorium as way of disposing of murder victims **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733 "2014-09-07T05:00:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/21 "2014-09-09T08:06:34Z")
Nevada is a big place. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/22 "2014-09-09T16:11:42Z")
They’ve gotten rid of a couple of bodies like this on “Sons of Anarchy.” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/23 "2014-09-09T18:28:00Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > Teeth are extremely durable, and can withstand cremation. Heard a talk by Dr. Henry Lee, who recounted the case of a woman who has her mother cremated, but thought there was something odd about the cremains. Dr. Lee simply counted the teeth. “You have one-and-a-half people in this bag” he told her. I thought running the cremated remains through a cremulator would take care of the teeth and anything else that wasn’t already ash? ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/24 "2014-09-10T02:00:04Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I thought running the cremated remains through a cremulator would take care of the teeth and anything else that wasn’t already ash? You would think so, but according to Dr. Lee (“Coroner To The Stars”), teeth are incredibly durable. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/25 "2014-09-10T02:46:14Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > What would happen if they put a living person in one? Would they burn alive or die of smoke inhalation first like other fire victims do? I am no medical professional, but I think they’d remain conscious for several minutes, in extreme agony. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/26 "2014-09-10T06:43:21Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Nevada is a big place. Just sayin’. A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. ---
**Author:** ![nizzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8baadc/32.png) [@nizzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nizzle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/27 "2014-09-10T14:44:54Z")
There is a cool Podcast here with Dr Chris Ryan interviewing a mortician, she mentions a place where they used to get rid of bodies back in the day. Interesting listening… [http://www.feralaudio.com/25-caitlin-doughty/](http://www.feralaudio.com/25-caitlin-doughty/) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/28 "2014-09-10T14:54:00Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Assuming that you’re smart (and don’t confess) just how hard would it really be to get rid of a body and have it never be found? > > Feet in a block of cement, take it off shore in a speed boat and dump it - even if the police knew where you went - would they have any real chance of finding the body after a month or so? I know that for even your basic trailer sailer of leisure boat - the water area you could cover would be massive, not to mention currents etc etc, let alone getting something slightly bigger that a mobster would be able to afford. > > Same for burial in the desert or paddock somewhere - again, assuming there were no witnesses, if I buried someone 5 or 6 foot deep in a cornfield somewhere - is there any real prospect that body will be found short of a search in a very very specific area? It’s not hard to dig and fill a 6’ hole overnight - even by myself. Apparently, it is surprisingly difficult. The first decision is to destroy or not to destroy. Destroying - if you can do it with fire or acid or whatever - would be best, because who knows what forensic evidence they can find on a body, if they find it? But destruction requires infrastructure that can be traced, may leave annoying bits of evidence like teeth, medical implants and gallstones. Not destroying it, but hiding it, is often quicker, but what is hidden can be discovered - maybe years later. This is true in water or earth. Have the best gravesite in the world, and it can be undone by unanticipated development; also, someone could see you digging the hole, or notice the grave subsiding into a hollow. In water, there is the problem of divers, and the risk of fishermen with nets, or dredgers, or simply unpredicatble effects of decomposition. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/29 "2014-09-10T14:58:25Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Apparently, it is surprisingly difficult. > > The first decision is to destroy or not to destroy. > > Destroying - if you can do it with fire or acid or whatever - would be best, because who knows what forensic evidence they can find on a body, if they find it? But destruction requires infrastructure that can be traced, may leave annoying bits of evidence like teeth, medical implants and gallstones. > > Not destroying it, but hiding it, is often quicker, but what is hidden can be discovered - maybe years later. This is true in water or earth. Have the best gravesite in the world, and it can be undone by unanticipated development; also, someone could see you digging the hole, or notice the grave subsiding into a hollow. In water, there is the problem of divers, and the risk of fishermen with nets, or dredgers, or simply unpredicatble effects of decomposition. Even a weighted body can float to the surface if it bloats up with gas. A friend in the Coast Guard talked about finding a weighted body just because of this. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/30 "2014-09-10T15:09:55Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Even a weighted body can float to the surface if it bloats up with gas. A friend in the Coast Guard talked about finding a weighted body just because of this. Exactly so. There have been many cases of bodies found in water, even those encased in cement, or in once notable case, in a sleeping bag wrapped with chains. It isn’t a sure-fire method. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/31 "2014-09-10T15:18:47Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > Teeth are extremely durable, and can withstand cremation. Heard a talk by Dr. Henry Lee, who recounted the case of a woman who has her mother cremated, but thought there was something odd about the cremains. Dr. Lee simply counted the teeth. “You have one-and-a-half people in this bag” he told her. I heard a talk by a forensic scientist when I was in law school. He discussed a case in which a man killed his wife, burned her body and rototilled the remains into their garden (he told family and friends that his wife had left him and run away). Police got a warrant and dug up the garden, finding nothing but a tooth fragment, about the size of a matchhead, with an odd notch in it. It turned out the wife was a former Army nurse, and her Army dental records showed she had a very small but distinctive notch in that tooth. The man was convicted of murder, largely on the strength of that tiny tooth fragment. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/32 "2014-09-10T15:25:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I heard a talk by a forensic scientist when I was in law school. He discussed a case in which a man killed his wife, burned her body and rototilled the remains into their garden (he told family and friends that his wife had left him and run away). Police got a warrant and dug up the garden, finding nothing but a tooth fragment, about the size of a matchhead, with an odd notch in it. It turned out the wife was a former Army nurse, and her Army dental records showed she had a very small but distinctive notch in that tooth. The man was convicted of murder, largely on the strength of that tiny tooth fragment. On the plus side, the tomatoes that year were no doubt _awesome_. 😉 My favorite story along these lines was one case in which a body was found in a bog, and neighbours swore it was that of a woman who had gone missing some years earlier. Again, her husband had claimed she had “run off”. Confronted with the evidence, the husband duly confessed - he’d killed his wife and tossed her body in that bog. Only later it was determined that the body was a mummified, two-thousand-year old body - one of the so-called “bog people” (bogs can, where conditions are right, mummify bodies and preserve them nearly indefinitely). The actual murdered body of the wife in this case was never found! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/33 "2014-09-10T15:26:32Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > You would think so, but according to Dr. Lee (“Coroner To The Stars”), teeth are incredibly durable. I have ashes of a loved one. No teeth. Many bones supposedly survive the burning, at least partly. It’s all ground to dust. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733/34 "2014-09-10T15:33:09Z")
When my grandfather died (he had cancer) and was cremated, his cremated bones had green stains over them. We were told that it was an effect of chemotherapy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crematorium-as-way-of-disposing-of-murder-victims/697733.md?page=1)