# How come nobody SMELLED IT! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2001, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929 "2001-11-01T16:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/1 "2001-11-01T16:10:03Z")
Ahem, Hi fellow dopers, please see this article found on todays ruters site - it’s about a woman who was dead for 10 months in her apartment before she was discovered: [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011101/od/corpse\_dc\_1.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011101/od/corpse_dc_1.html) Any idea who nobody SMELLED it? Thanx, Janx! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/2 "2001-11-01T16:27:08Z")
Because the neighbors were all cooking bratwurts & drinking beer? Bleah… ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/3 "2001-11-01T16:31:22Z")
ObGermanJoke: > [@](#): > > Germany regularly has cases where a body is not discovered until weeks, months or even years after the person has died, a phenomenon sociologists say is symptomatic of an industrial and increasingly cold and anonymous society. > > In a particularly striking case, a Hamburg man sat dead on his sofa in front of his television for five years before he was found. > > The country’s efficient banking system, with automatic monthly transfers of rents and pensions, makes it possible for financial transactions to continue in a person’s name for years after his or her death. The next time you hear a car commercial that speaks of “superior German engineering,” think about that . . . ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/4 "2001-11-01T19:17:16Z")
Supposedly Jeffrey Dahmer was able to decompose/cook several dead bodies because the neighbors thought he was cooking _chitlins_!!! Really makes you wonder about chitlins, eh? ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/5 "2001-11-01T19:58:41Z")
they often do here anyway when old people die alone in their appartments , course there was this guy discovered dead in his basement after drinking himself to death several hundered empty bottles were on one side of him and several hundred full bottles the otherside , he didn’t go rotten either as the immense quantity of alcohol pickled his body ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/6 "2001-11-01T20:05:21Z")
That reeks of UL. Or it reeks of Wild Turkey. Anyway, gotta cite? ---
**Author:** ![nth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/7 "2001-11-01T20:54:38Z")
I seen dead bodies that failed to rot. There are no real scientific explanations. They just claim that some chemicals must have kept bacteria or fungus from decomposing the body. About the OP, it makes no sense at all. The article makes it sound like even when they went in to clear out the apt, they did not smell it. Which I really doubt it! I think people can smell odor but not bad odor where you call the police cuz the door was closed and probably pretty much sealed or the other explanation i can come up with is that the kitchen fan was on so the smell was sucked out, so very lil odor penetrated the front door. maybe the decomposing fungus took over and not the decomposing bacteria. The decomposing bacteria produce more fowl smell than the fungus variety. But this is based on anecdotal evidence. I never came across a scientific paper on smell of these two. Plus, grouping them as decomposing fungus/bacteria means I am generalizing/categorizing a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/8 "2001-11-01T21:20:44Z")
If the person dies in the autumn and it’s very cold, the body might well have time to lose a lot of it’s moisture slowly during winter and end up mummified rather than rotting. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/9 "2001-11-01T23:32:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\* The next time you hear a car commercial that speaks of “superior German engineering,” think about that . . . \*\* Hey, don’t knock it. My bank screws this up all the time, and I’m _alive_. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/10 "2001-11-01T23:41:58Z")
While I make no comment on the incident in the OP, this can really, honest-to-god happen. I’ve seen reports of it happening several times in Australian cities - Sydney and Adelaide. Sometimes buildings are tightly sealed, which prevents the smell escaping, sometimes the neighbours just don’t give enough of a toss to check on their elderly neighbour, and then the smell goes away. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/11 "2001-11-01T23:46:24Z")
Recall William Faulkner’s wonderfully macabre story “A Rose for Emily.” :eek: They smelled it, all right, but Emily bluffed them out of investigating. Southern gentility helped her. “‘Dammit, sir,’ Judge Stevens said, ‘will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?’” ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/12 "2001-11-02T00:16:38Z")
While not common, a body can indeed mummify and not rot if it is a cold and dry atmosphere. I suppose being very thin should help and maybe drinking a couple gallons of whisky… ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/13 "2001-11-02T00:21:34Z")
My understanding was that “the one who smelt it dealt it” which was not the case with the neighbours. However, they do fall under the category of “the one who denied it supplied it”. Your question reminds me of the world’s oldest joke. **DrP** I met a dog that had no nose. **Janx** How did it smell? **DrP** Awful. (Board erupts with sound of gunfire.) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/14 "2001-11-03T03:12:46Z")
Vaguely…remembering…anecdote…formaldehyde…bodies not decomposing…Damn 8:30 classes! Seiously, though, my prof mentioned this THIS MORNING as part of one of his weird tangent stories! But I can’t remember what it was that people were supposedly consuming that contained formaldehyde and hence people weren’t decomposing when they died, so they started using the stuff as preservative. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/15 "2001-11-03T04:02:56Z")
People who drink too much methanol (wood alcohol) make formaldehyde. This incrdient is found in cheap blind pig liqour and Aqua Velva (the preferred shot of Saint John yahoos). ---
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/16 "2001-11-03T04:09:01Z")
Marchino cherries are - I was told as a kid - preserved with formaldehyde, but I imagine you would kill yourself trying to eat enough to avoid an embalmers bill. I posted this actually because I couldn’t believe no one complained about the stench, while the above suggestions look plausible, I just cant believe the smell from a corps left to rot for 10 months didn’t draw ANY attention, while its possible (I suppose) the corps didn’t stink, (as written above),I don’t believe it - those scenarios are the exceptions not the rule. As for the guy drinking himself to death in his basement, I haven’t found anything on that - and I seriously doubt it happened, intresting yarn though, the competitave drinking teams should encorporate that event into there meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/17 "2001-11-03T22:13:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > Supposedly Jeffrey Dahmer was able to decompose/cook several dead bodies because the neighbors thought he was cooking _chitlins_!!! Really makes you wonder about chitlins, eh? Actually, Mr. Dahmer’s neighbors complained about the smell a number of times prior to the final discovery but the authorities apparently blew off the complaints, and the one time the police did drop by Mr. D said he’d had some hamburger go bad while on a short trip and he had thrown it out the day before. A lot of cooking foods smell bad - my mom’s sauerkraut, for instance, was a violation of the Geneva convention and could empty out an entire block - but I think I’d wonder more about a “nice” yankee white boy cooking chitlins than about the chitlins themselves. In this part of the country (Chicago/Milwaukee area) they’re considered pretty much “soul food” and almost never made or eaten by white folks. Anyhow, if you clean chitlins up properly (never a pleasent job) they don’t smell _that_ bad when cooking. And not to be too blunt, but uncleaned chitlins don’t smell like rotten meat, they smell like shit. ---
**Author:** ![Ariadne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@Ariadne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ariadne)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/18 "2001-11-03T23:08:07Z")
They might just think it was a dead rodent in the walls. There was a smell in one room of my apartment as though something had died. It lasted for about a week, and I had maintenance up here several times and they couldn’t find anything in the walls (not that they looked all that hard). Never occurred to me or them to check the next-door apartment on the other side of that room. Do dead humans smell for more than a week or two? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/19 "2001-11-03T23:49:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by geepee \* > \*\* several hundered empty bottles were on one side of him and several hundred full bottles the otherside \*\* Cool. ---
**Author:** ![DMAAN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@DMAAN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMAAN)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929/20 "2001-11-04T00:05:33Z")
slight hyjack- What’s a chitlin? d [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-nobody-smelled-it/90929.md?page=2)