Weird smell in elevator... any ideas?

Factual Questions
1

The superintendant in my apartment building are stumped by a strong smell in the building’s elevator. It’s hard to describe, but it smells a bit like body odor (BO) and/or stale air.

They claim that they search the entire elevator shaft (4 floors) and found nothing. They thought that maybe someone had thrown a raw piece of chicken down there!

The building is old (circa 1940s) and the elevator is one of those quaint ones where you have to pull over the (200 pound!) door.

Any ideas on what this could be? Does mold have a smell?

2

In movies, people are always transporting dead bodies though the elevators…

3

It could be mold/mildew from an old leak in shaft.

It could be roach/rat/aardvark dander/droppings mixed with stagnate water at bottom of shaft.

It could be urine (dog or human) in the elevator car.

So many things it could be…

4

Is the floor covered with carpet?

5

SARS???