# Ever Smelled a Decomposing Human Body? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109 "2010-03-20T04:00:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/21 "2010-03-21T05:23:33Z")
I’ve not smelled a decomposing human body, but I have come into contact with a burnt one. I hate to say this, but it actually smelled kinda good. I didn’t eat barbecue for awhile after that, though. And I wonder if the “human bodies smell worse” thing isn’t partly psychological. That is, while you’re dealing with it, you’re also thinking “oh my god, this used to be a person,” and that makes the smell that much worse. That’s really more of a WAG than anything else, though. Also, a professor of mine (who surely HAS smelled decomposing bodies) told us that the best way to get rid of the scent was to rub lemons on yourself in the shower. And some forensic scientists snort water to get the scent molecules out of their nose. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/22 "2010-03-21T08:38:28Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=556330) tread of a lady not found under a mattress in a Memphis motel > > Simple question: > > Have you ever smelled a decomposing human body? If so how bad was the smell? > > I have never smelled a decomposing body. I’ve found people dead but they were dead too short a time. > > I read that both Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy had foul smelling flats and houses (Gacy blamed the smell on a dead rodent in the crawlspace, which the police initial bought). Two. A recent Vietnamese grave that we didn’t know was there, accidentally dug up by a bulldozer building a defensive berm and a joe who went down in a helicopter in the south china sea. The Vietnamese grave was much more pungent and actually hurt my nose. But I remember the guy from the helicopter as the most rotten thing I’ve ever smelled. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/23 "2010-03-21T10:49:39Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Or in humans that are going to the mortuary, they just stick the viscera back in the body as if it were a weird gift box? That’s pretty much it. Then we take it out again and soak it in a bucket of cavity fluid, then it goes back in. What a lot of people probably don’t know is that the brain is usually in there with the viscera, so an autopsied person is buried with their brain somewhere in their abdominal cavity and the cranium stuffed with cotton, so you won’t see any autopsied zombies. My favorite method for dealing with the smell is to smoke two cigarettes, peel the paper off the butts and shove the used filters up my nose. A lot of sneezing when you take them out, but better than barfing. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/24 "2010-03-21T12:23:54Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > That’s pretty much it. Then we take it out again and soak it in a bucket of cavity fluid, then it goes back in. What a lot of people probably don’t know is that the brain is usually in there with the viscera, so an autopsied person is buried with their brain somewhere in their abdominal cavity and the cranium stuffed with cotton, so you won’t see any autopsied zombies. > > My favorite method for dealing with the smell is to smoke two cigarettes, peel the paper off the butts and shove the used filters up my nose. A lot of sneezing when you take them out, but better than barfing. But… why??? Why get the viscera back? Is it for some formal reason along the lines of “in case it has to be dug out years from now”, or just a simple “it’s custom”? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/25 "2010-03-21T17:56:14Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=556330) tread of a lady not found under a mattress in a Memphis motel > > Simple question: > > Have you ever smelled a decomposing human body? If so how bad was the smell? Oh, yeah. Decomposition is unforgettable. Many moons ago, I was a deputy sheriff. We got a call about a strange odor and my partner started cussing. Sure enough, it was a guy who had died from an O.D. in a closed house with no air conditioning in the summertime. He was all over the walls and ceiling and the smell is undescribable. That was when I was first shown the trick of burning coffee grounds in a skillet to mask the odor. It’s been more than 30 years ago, and to this day when I drive past the Folger’s coffee place, I start looking for dead bodies. That association will stay with me forever. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/26 "2010-03-21T19:35:50Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > But… why??? Why get the viscera back? Is it for some formal reason along the lines of “in case it has to be dug out years from now”, or just a simple “it’s custom”? A little of both, I guess. Sometimes a family will not be satisfied with the results of the coroner’s autopsy and will have a private one done. And I guess most people like the idea that the whole body is in the casket and not being used for evil experiments somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/27 "2010-03-21T22:51:45Z")
No, but I’ve smelled throughly rotten animals of a human size. I don’t think the smell of decomposition is very BAD - skunk, say, is a lot more unpleasant. But it’s super-strong, carries like crazy, and it sticks to your hair and clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/28 "2010-03-22T00:15:23Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > And I wonder if the “human bodies smell worse” thing isn’t partly psychological. That is, while you’re dealing with it, you’re also thinking “oh my god, this used to be a person,” and that makes the smell that much worse. That’s really more of a WAG than anything else, though. Probably partly psycological, but I doubt many large human sized animals die in confined spaces, while most humans who get left out for more then a day (at least out side of major disaster areas or warzones) are probably closed up in a room somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/29 "2010-03-22T01:23:46Z")
Yes, I used to work in a Jewish funeral home. (Yes, there is a difference between Jewish funeral homes and non-Jewish funeral homes - it has to do with traditional washing and preparation of a corpse for burial instead of the more recent practice of embalming.) Decaying human flesh is not a good smell. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone… ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/30 "2010-03-22T02:10:13Z")
**Ever Smelled a Decomposing Human Body?** Smells like chicken (decomposing). ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/31 "2010-03-22T03:21:54Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > I’ve not smelled a decomposing human body, but I have come into contact with a burnt one. I hate to say this, but it actually smelled kinda good. I didn’t eat barbecue for awhile after that, though. > > And I wonder if the “human bodies smell worse” thing isn’t partly psychological. That is, while you’re dealing with it, you’re also thinking “oh my god, this used to be a person,” and that makes the smell that much worse. That’s really more of a WAG than anything else, though. We live about a half block up from where that monster dressed up as Santa and shot, killed, and torched a house on Christmas Eve 2008. Nine people in the house died, some from gunshot, some from his homemade flamethrower exploding and taking the house down. Hubby and I were awakened by all of the lights and sirens, but thought it might be for a frail neighbor. Christmas morning, while packing up the car to head to my folks’ place, we both noticed an odd smell. It was sweet, oily, burnt; we couldn’t identify it. We later realized it was the charred bodies left in the house. That fact has imprinted the scent in my mind. It wasn’t terrible in and of itself, but the story behind it…yeeeeeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109/32 "2010-03-22T03:55:34Z")
There was a body found in a fifth floor apartment apartment of quite a large building (more than a hudred units), and the smell permeated the entire building. You could smell it before you even walked in the ground floor entrance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-smelled-a-decomposing-human-body/533109.md?page=1)