# Methods of criminal disposal of bodies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012 "2005-03-24T06:18:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/21 "2005-03-24T20:02:01Z")
> [@Misery Loves Co.](#): > > If you’ve got the balls to do so, pick a grave of someone who was just interred. Better yet, find a graveyard that digs its graves the night before the service (and isn’t well-guarded at night), and under cover of darkness, bury the body in the bottom of the hole, so the coffin of the grave’s actual occupant will go on top of it the next day. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/22 "2005-03-24T20:12:57Z")
Apparently, short of total destruction of the body the main ideas fall into: a place where no one will look until after your natural life expires; rendering the corpse to a form that’s unrecognizable as a human body I suppose that a combination of these two would be even better. Perhaps if the chippered body had been disposed of in a concrete slab. There’s the deep wilderness, the open ocean, outer space, under a building, There’re acid and base combos, wood chippers, rock crushers, ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/23 "2005-03-24T20:16:33Z")
Dennis Nilsson kept his victims under the floorboards for a while, then cut them up and flushed them down the loo. He was caught by a plumber who found body parts in the outside sewer lines. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/24 "2005-03-24T20:18:53Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s also rather difficult to dispose of a body. For all the light-hearted talk about dissolution in a vat of acid… ask yourself: if you had a body to dispose of right now, have you a vat of acid handy? Yes, but acidic conditions are relatively frequent in nature so our body has built up somewhat of a tolerance to it(we’re slightly acidic on a whole), so I find that bases, such as Sodium Hydroxide work better. That’s why lye works so well. However if I’m going to dispose of a body, it’s going into a radioactive decay barrel with some radioactive waste. Nobody’s going to check that thing for a century. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![WeRSauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f19dbf/32.png) [@WeRSauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WeRSauron)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/25 "2005-03-24T20:19:47Z")
In a quote by **the first supraliminal** , it was written, “When bone and flesh had been reduced to a sludge-like mess, he poured the gooey residue onto the dirt surface of an open yard behind the building.” So, a sludge-like mess is still left behind, which could still be used to identify the remains, right? Which means dissolving a body in acid is still not a good idea, no? With burying, wouldn’t the body still be detectable if it’s not buried deep enough, especially if a dog is used in the search? (Best methods so far seem to be feeding it to pigs (although certainly not foolproof) and burying it in a cemetary.) WRS ---
**Author:** ![WeRSauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f19dbf/32.png) [@WeRSauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WeRSauron)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/26 "2005-03-24T20:27:04Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > so I find that bases, such as Sodium Hydroxide work better. That’s why lye works so well. Do bases dissolve the body, clothes, and stuff like acid does? How do bases work destructively? (I’ve heard about harmful acids than harmful bases, so please forgive my ignorance.) WRS ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/27 "2005-03-24T20:52:01Z")
In the novel [Molôn Labé!](http://www.javelinpress.com/molon_labe.html) By [Boston T. Party](http://www.javelinpress.com/), a body was disposed of by submersing it in a grave filled with **Drano**. According to the narrative in the story, a body submersed in Drano would essentially disintegrate after 1 month. ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/28 "2005-03-24T20:52:34Z")
I think **PatriotX** has the right idea: destroy **and** hide. Going on a boat ride and dumping the acid-sludgified body over a few hundred feet of water would probably do the trick. I wonder about dumping body parts into molten steel, too. Would that destroy everything identifiable? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/29 "2005-03-24T21:11:37Z")
There is a thread that I can’t find from either 1999 or 2000 asking how Dopers would go about disposing bodies. Some of the answers were disturbingly well thought out. ---
**Author:** ![badmana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/30 "2005-03-24T21:26:09Z")
> [@galt](#): > > I think **PatriotX** has the right idea: destroy **and** hide. Going on a boat ride and dumping the acid-sludgified body over a few hundred feet of water would probably do the trick. > > I wonder about dumping body parts into molten steel, too. Would that destroy everything identifiable? You’d just end up with sludged up steel (or rather, Iron with extra carbon and other traces that would probably not make the steel very good). Lots of bodies are just buried and never found again. You probably have a 80% chance of never being caught if you bury the body in a field without anyone seeing you. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/31 "2005-03-24T21:49:37Z")
> [@WeRSauron](#): > > Do bases dissolve the body, clothes, and stuff like acid does? How do bases work destructively? (I’ve heard about harmful acids than harmful bases, so please forgive my ignorance.) > > WRS acid and base combos My chemistry teacher told us that between hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide (?) all that wouldn’t dissolve would be the gold fillings in your teeth. He then mixed the two together and drank it. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/32 "2005-03-24T22:25:26Z")
Lyme pits. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/33 "2005-03-24T22:31:16Z")
Winging it from what’s left of high school chemistry, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide = HCl + NaOH which yield when combined HOH + NaCl which = water and salt. All he had to do was match the concentrations. Cut up your body, bag up the remains, and put it in the garbage. ---
**Author:** ![chaparralv8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@chaparralv8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaparralv8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/34 "2005-03-24T22:34:32Z")
Chop into little bits with an ax, and then incinerate in a natural-gas burning furnace. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/35 "2005-03-24T23:06:22Z")
How hard would it be to build a small crematorium in your own home? Say you lived somewhere rural. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/36 "2005-03-24T23:07:22Z")
[Mexican Hit Men Dissolved Foes in Acid](http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-crime-mexico-acid.html) excerpt: > [@](#): > > Mexican Hit Men Dissolved Foes in Acid - Police > By REUTERS > > Published: March 24, 2005 > > Filed at 5:59 p.m. ET > > TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican police said on Thursday they had arrested four drug cartel hit men who used acid-filled tubs to dissolve their victims’ remains. > > Police, who made the arrests in Tijuana, south of San Diego, California, late on Tuesday, said the men confessed to carrying out at least 15 murders for the Arellano Felix drug cartel and to using acid to dissolve some of their victims’ bodies. > > Police and prosecutors said they found metal tubs of concentrated hydrochloric acid in a raid on a warehouse used by the men in Tijuana, which also yielded 4.5 tons of marijuana and an arms cache including 11 assault rifles and ammunition. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/37 "2005-03-24T23:38:14Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > acid and base combos > > My chemistry teacher told us that between hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide (?) all that wouldn’t dissolve would be the gold fillings in your teeth. That’s why you have a little nitric acid around. Mix one part of that with 4 parts hydrochloric acid and you get aqua regia which will dissolve gold. > [@](#): > > He then mixed the two together and drank it. I hope he let it cool first. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/38 "2005-03-24T23:43:11Z")
> [@WeRSauron](#): > > Do bases dissolve the body, clothes, and stuff like acid does? How do bases work destructively? (I’ve heard about harmful acids than harmful bases, so please forgive my ignorance.) > > WRS Both are caustic substances(deending on the concentration, vinegar is dilute acetic acid), an acid is a proton donor, a base a proton receptor. (Well, really electon denisty, but let’s not get into that) Highly concentrated acids and bases are very reactive, breaking down most chemical bonds. Don’t expect to be melting through steel like Alien, however. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/39 "2005-03-24T23:47:42Z")
Recently I have been expanding into dumping them into fast food chilli con carne. Just a bit at a time though. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/40 "2005-03-24T23:53:51Z")
I’ve read a number of books on forensics (yeah, I’m morbid), and they pointed out that it’s harder to dispose of a body than it seems at first. Burning one takes hours, and the fire has to be kept at a high temperature to make a body unrecognizable as such (and pathologists/forensic anthropologists can identify cremains as human–little bone chips and teeth stick around). Cutting a body up is difficult because the tendons and ligaments are tough and there’s a lot of blood. Burying isn’t easy because of the size and depth of the hole that’s needed to keep animals and rain from uncovering it. To me, the best bet seems to be dumping a body deep in the woods. Critters will munch on it and scatter the bones. Someone may find it eventually, but it’ll take a long time. My $.02 anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012.md?page=3)