Precisely what level of decomposition can we expect my landlord to encounter when he comes to collect late rent, with the shower continually washing bits of me down the drain?
My, I’m morbidly curious today.
Funny, when I stroke in the shower I usually…
…never mind.
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- Well a question like this really deserves photos, and this board doesn’t allow that. …So look around on the websites of Rotten and Ogrish, they do have photos of instances of these sorts of things.
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- Well a question like this really deserves photos, and this board doesn’t allow that. …So look around on the websites of Rotten and Ogrish, they do have photos of instances of these sorts of things.
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What do you call a guy with no arms and no legs in a hot tub?
Stew.
What do you call a dead guy soaking in the tub for a month?
Nothing. He can’t answer you anyway.
Remember the scene in “The Silence of the Lambs” - old lady in the bathtub.
Pretty much like that.
If the shower is a slow drainer, it’s possible that the landlord could find you sooner rather than later.
Is the shower running steaming hot or ice cold?
How late your rent already is might determine how long you stay undiscovered. I do suppose someone in your family might call you before a month goes by ? Your a sad and lonely guy then… 
The smell in two weeks max would warrant inspection by neighbors too.
Depending upon where you stroke out, other tenants could complain of *DUNS, with the leaking and the odor.
*Dead Upstairs Neighbor Syndrome (thank you, “CSI”)
Yeah, it would depend on the water temp, room temp, if the water drained, and whether or not any windows were open.
I saw a pic once of an elderly man who died while taking a bath. Seems the water was very hot, and his corpse literally broiled for about a week before he was found. Icky, icky pic. He was little more than a blob. Looked like a tub full of…the scum left on the bottom of the pot after you roast a chicken. Only more black and reddish. And it had a couple knees that looked a lot like chicken wings sticking out of it (sorry if I ruin anyone’s chicken dinner…)
There are some gruesome, but informative forensic sites you can look up which explain the decomposition process.
I think I heard about that one (unless it was an urban legend) - the guy was apparently in the habit of taking a bath with a submersible water heater in it, to keep the water warm; he died and the heater just made him into a big bathful of soup.
Speaking of CSI, the Las Vegas show (there is no Miami show) did a dead guy broiled in a bathtub episode this year (episode 2 of season 4). It looked very much like the picture that Ms. Amazon Floozy Goddess described. Perhaps they saw that picture too.
All this delightful talk about dead bodies liquefying in bathtubs reminds me of a picture I once drew that was inspired by that scene from ‘Silence of the Lambs’ which adirondack_mike mentioned. The work in question (one of unsurpassable artistic GENIUS if I do say so myself) was entitled “Bathtime for Neville the Necrophiliac”, and well… I’ll leave it up to you to imagine what it looked like.
I do have some anecdotal glurge to share, so bear with me.
I think a month in the shower would be far, far worse than a month in the bathtub, but that’s not to say the results would be good. To say the least, there would be considerable deterioration of the body, and significant post-mortem bloating. However, I’d say the chances of bodily identification would be greater on a body out of the shower than out of the bathtub. However, IANA coroner, so perhaps a medical professional can either support or refute this belief.
I had a friend in high school and college that got into an argument with a fellow over money. Arguing turned to shoving, and the two began to fight in his apartment. During the scuffle, the man’s live-in fiancee hit my friend over the head with a lamp, killing him.
The couple decided to wrap my friend’s body in a plastic tarp, and deposit it under a bridge in shallow water. There his body lay until 38 days after the murder, at which point it was discovered.
According to officers at the scene, there was absolutely no chance of a visual identification. He was finally identified by dental records. Police interviewed friends and acquaintances (me among them) and finally found their murderers. Last I’d heard they were both sent to prison – she for less time than he, ironically enough.
The University of Tennessee operates “The Body Farm,” which is a facility for figuring out the answer to questions just like this one. You can read about it, and the National Forensics Academy, here: http://www.nfa.tennessee.edu/
This is anecdotal but I could find out more info if it’s wanted.
A friend of mine was called in once to remove a body from an apartment. A man had been taking a shower, slipped, died and left there for a week or so with the shower still running. According to my friend, the running shower had started to bore a hole through the man’s chest.
Ew.
There was fantastic documentary on TV about this place that I saw around the beginning of this year (or end of last). The utterly fascincating part was they showed a body decay from beginning to “end” (or at least several weeks or months) in time lapse photography.
The fascination aspect of it completely overwhelmed the disgust.
Plus it was very informative about what factors accellerate decay, like heat. If the shower in the situation postulated in the OP was hot water, I presume that would accellerate the decay. But I suppose the hot water would run out faster than the heater could replenish it, so it might end up being cold or cool water pretty quickly.
I gotta check that out if I can ever see a clip. Gotta put the Pink Flyod video to shame.
Thanks to all for the replies.
I did look up Rotten-dot-com for anything related this material. Between the “Hooker in the Morgue” link and “F*** of the Month Club” is a link poetically entitled “Simmer: Broiled broth of a man” that is indeed all you could hope to envision regarding this topic. Not for the weak or real estate investors. Thanks DougC – I’ll head over the Ogrish eventually.
Da Cissy Pimp. Don’t ever date my sister.
I wondered how constantly falling water, constantly drained, with no exposure to insect life or the elements, might have on a corpse. Like what Gulo gulo described: could it bore a hole through the body?
For those of you intrigued enough to comment, I appreciate any replies. Assume a cool bathroom with closed windows and door, with at best tepid-to-cold running water for the full 30 days. A breakdown of what decay happens the first seven days, the next seven days, etc. might prove informative.
Also: could the shower eventually clog the drain with hair as the body decomposes?
– Askia “I’m washing with wet naps until I get some answers” Hale
Hmm . . do I get a prize for reading this whole thread while eating rice pudding and not gagging? The mods don’t get paid enough for reading threads like these . . .
There are some people in Tennessee that run a body farm.
They lay corpses out in the woods to see how and how long it takes them to decay to various stages in various kinds of weather.
Maybe you can get them to make a study of your problem.
On the other hand when you stroke out you won’t give a fig anyhow!