# How long would it be before someone discovered your corpse? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957 "2011-11-05T14:36:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/1 "2011-11-05T14:36:43Z")
This was done [before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=145046) but that was 9 years ago and I only recognize a handful of the responders in that thread, so I say let’s do it again! Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=630298) about the New Zealand woman who dies suddenly and her daughter survived on her own for 2 days before her family went looking for her. So… if you were to suddenly expire at home, how long do you think it would it be before you were found? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/2 "2011-11-05T14:41:25Z")
About 5 minutes after my alarm goes off and I’m not down getting the kids ready for day care. If I’m not dead already, my wife will make sure that there will be a corpse to be found. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/3 "2011-11-05T14:47:29Z")
I travel a bunch, so “home” is often a hotel. Even so I’d be discovered within a few hours when I no-showed for work or the staff tried to clean up my room. At real home home, my wife and I are in and out all day on often different schedules. But I’d still be missed and discovered pretty quickly, 12 hours tops. If she expired while I was on the road it might be a couple days before I got worried enough at the lack of communications to send the neighbors looking. ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Obvious)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/4 "2011-11-05T14:56:07Z")
It depends really. If I’m at home, anywhere from immediately to within a few hours, depending on everyone else who lives here is asleep or gone somewhere. Now if I’m off on my daily walks, there’s no telling. I don’t take the same route on a day by day basis, and most of the time I’m in the woods or on a seldom used road. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/5 "2011-11-05T14:59:08Z")
In my current living situation if my son weren’t home he would be soon enough that I’d be found within a day. If I happened to expire when he was with his dad for the summer there are people who would notice my absence fairly quickly. My suspicion is that I’d rack up a dozen or so phone messages before anyone actually came to the house. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/6 "2011-11-05T15:19:54Z")
Within minutes, if my wife and son are also home, which is true \>90% of the time I’m home. If I were to suddenly expire when they had just left on an errand, it might be up to a few hours before they got home and realized they had an ex-husband/dad. But that’s really the worst case. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/7 "2011-11-05T15:25:50Z")
I live alone. So if it happened on a Friday night. By the ealiest would be the following tuesday. People at work would be concerned but not alarmed if I didn’t show up for work and not call but if it happened again on Tuesday I think they’d be calling someone. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/8 "2011-11-05T15:30:06Z")
I work at a family business with my dad, my mom, my sister and my ex-wife. I’m normally at work by 8am. Assuming it’s a day where I don’t have my daughter I think I could expect a text message around 9am and and maybe another one or two texts followed by a call between 9:30 and 10am. I would think someone, probably my ex-wife would head over to my house (only a five minute drive from work) around 10-11am to check on me. So, worst case scenario, I get home from work at 5ish and drop dead, we’re looking at 15-17 hours or so. We can call it 24 hours to account for some sort of anomaly. But, assuming it happened in my house, I can’t see it taking more then 24 hours before a family member (ex or otherwise) comes over to check up on me. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/9 "2011-11-05T15:49:26Z")
I live alone, I am self employed and all my family lives 2000 miles away, so I don’t think I would be found until my landlord/neighbor noticed the smell or when I failed to pay the rent. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/10 "2011-11-05T15:58:35Z")
I assume that my students would complain to my chair when I failed to show up for class, and that would set the wheels in motion fairly quickly, so I’d say maybe up to three days if I died on Friday afternoon, but no longer. On the other hand, my first class on Monday is remedial comp, and I’m not sure any of the students in there have enough of a clue to go looking for my chair. I’m pinning my hopes to the Shakespeare class later that day… ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/11 "2011-11-05T17:49:58Z")
Depends when the next rent payment is due. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/12 "2011-11-05T17:51:41Z")
My wife would be there. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/13 "2011-11-05T17:51:44Z")
I’ve sometimes wondered what would happen if I died when I have all the keys to my work route with me, but I really doubt the night supervisor would find a way to get to my apartment the first night I was missing. Maybe they have backup keys at the office, no idea. I do know they’d call me after I’d be roughly an hour late on the first night of work I’d miss but I don’t know what the procedure is if I would not answer the phone. 500 people would get their newspapers late that morning in any case. Friends and family would start wondering in 2-3 days too, depending whether they tried to contact me or not, but it’d take a while for them to actually get the spare key and come looking. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/14 "2011-11-05T17:59:58Z")
Almost immediately. unless my wife was traveling on business. Even then, the cats would know at once, and school would be calling before long to discover why I wasn’t in class. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/15 "2011-11-05T18:06:27Z")
Worse case scenario: my mom comes over on Monday morning for a visit with me and the boys before she takes them to daycare and then comes back to the house. She’s typically gone by 10. Assuming I fall over in the next 30 minutes, and my husband is home from work at 4:30, six hours tops. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/16 "2011-11-05T18:29:26Z")
I had a summer job helping with paperwork at a funeral home, and probably handled 100+ death certificates in that time span. I remember half a dozen that had no date of death, only a date found. It happens more often than you might think. If you’re retired and living alone, I highly advise befriending a neighbor and meeting for tea every morning! (If you’re retired, I also highly advise making arrangements for burial or cremation ahead of time, but that’s a different topic. When people are grieving, the question is always ‘what would the deceased have wanted?’ It makes things much easier on them if you already had it planned.) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/17 "2011-11-05T18:56:21Z")
Never likely to be more than a few hours. Mrs. Homie is within a stone’s throw of me _all the fucking time_. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/18 "2011-11-05T19:04:42Z")
Based on the fact that I can’t even get five minutes alone in the bathroom? I’d still be warm. Ten minutes, tops! (Sob. My new house has a great big soaking tub in the master bath. Since we moved in this June, I’ve used it three times: twice to give the baby a bath, and this morning, when I drew a nice hot bubble bath, fixed a carafe of coffee, found a good book, and sat down. Five minutes later? “Mom, I think the dog got out!”) ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/19 "2011-11-05T19:10:46Z")
> [@FlyByNight512](#): > > I had a summer job helping with paperwork at a funeral home, and probably handled 100+ death certificates in that time span. I remember half a dozen that had no date of death, only a date found. It happens more often than you might think. If you’re retired and living alone, I highly advise befriending a neighbor and meeting for tea every morning! Why? Why would I care how long my dead body is laying there? I’m dead. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lovely_Margo_Lane)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957/20 "2011-11-05T19:41:48Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Why? Why would I care how long my dead body is laying there? I’m dead. Well, you might not die right away… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-be-before-someone-discovered-your-corpse/601957.md?page=2)