# What's the best thing to do, legally, if you find a dead body in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303 "2015-10-02T21:13:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/81 "2015-10-06T18:08:27Z")
Also, a person’s anonymity _might_ be protected if he or she goes by way of a lawyer. YMMV by the laws in your jurisdiction and the procedure you use when dealing with the lawyer, so don’t take this with a grain of salt. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/82 "2015-10-06T18:18:49Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Because you have to talk to the police, and rule number one of talking to the police is “have your lawyer present”. Why do you find seeking legal counsel “a bizarre approach” or suspicious? It is, and should always be, SOP when dealing with the legal system in any capacity. If you don’t have a lawyer? Call one. I would make sure my lawyer knew even if I called an anonymous tip line. > > Police are suspicious of everyone who isn’t a cop. You were at the scene of a crime and so now your DNA is, too. Catching murderers is hard, so I would expect them to take the easiest approach with a probability of success. That could very well mean making me a suspect and using my presence at the crime scene as evidence. This is actually more accurately the advice commonly given when the _police_ want to speak with _you_ about a crime or potential crime. When _you are reporting a crime yourself_, generally speaking the attorneys I know take a more “Well, sure if you want to spend the money you can call a lawyer but it shouldn’t be necessary” approach. Interestingly, outside of works of fiction, random strangers who find a corpse and report it to the appropriate authorities are rarely murder suspects. I mean, sure, if you find the corpse of someone you personally know, then you might want to just refuse to answer questions from the police until you find an attorney. I will also say that if your life choices have lead you to a place where randomized suspicion of criminal activity on your part is likely, then you might also call an attorney. If the corpse is a stranger and your previous interactions with the police have been limited to traffic tickets, you have no really reasonable basis for worry about contacting the police. I will also say that if you’ve found a corpse and fail to report it and _then_ evidence of your presence is detected at the scene, then you got a problem. A lot more people are likely to consider that suspicious behavior than calling the cops if you find a dead person. The only time I’ve ever found a dead body\* (and, technically, it wasn’t me so much as the building super in whose company I was at the time), we found it, called the police promptly, and then gave simple statements and never heard about it again. It did not occur to me to call an attorney under those circumstances, or to recommend the super do the same, and at the time I was an actively licensed attorney in that state. The super was pretty freaked about having to call the cops in general (she was older, from an Eastern European nation and had had a number of . . . . really unfortunate and violent interactions with people in uniforms in her younger days that left her profoundly suspicious of anyone in a uniform up to and including our postman), but she didn’t even hesitate about making the call. She just asked me to stay with her for moral support and called her husband to come home and provide the same. Also she wanted the other witness around - she tended to lose her English under stress. I don’t lose my English under stress and we saw the same things =P The cops showed up with an ambulance and a coroner in tow. They explained that while they were sure we were probably right, we weren’t doctors and hey, maybe he was just in a coma or something. The EMTS and coroner did their things, the police asked us very polite questions (they were polite enough the freaked out super calmed down and let them have cookies), did a little inspection of the scene, slapped yellow crime scene tape all over the door, told the super to let them know if anyone disturbed it, and then left. I never heard from them again - the super did, but only when they called up to tell her she could let the building owner know that they were done with the scene and the landlord could coordinate with the next-of-kin about the details. - The very elderly man living in the apartment underneath me passed - evidently of natural causes - and nobody noticed until the complaints to the super about the smell started rolling in (it was New York in the summer in a building without central air). Since I was with the super - complaining politely about the smell - after three days of complaints and failed attempts to get the guy to answer his door, she used her master (which she was allowed to under the lease agreement). It was abundantly clear as soon as she cracked the door that he’d passed, but we called 911 anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/83 "2015-10-06T18:29:33Z")
> [@Aangelica](#): > > This is actually more accurately the advice commonly given when the _police_ want to speak with _you_ about a crime or potential crime. Is a suspected murder not a crime or potential crime? Do police normally not want to talk to the person who found the body? You were at the scene, and knew about the murder before police did, so in my opinion you will be suspect number one until you’ve given them an air tight alibi or another suspect becomes more likely in the course of the investigation. Neither of which is guaranteed. Sure you may not need a lawyer, but I’d rather have one present and not need them than not have one and find out I do in fact need one. Police don’t fuck around with murder and neither should you. It’s like cooking without a fire extinguisher in your house. Yeah, nine times out of ten it won’t be necessary, but when you’re playing with fire, it’s better to be safe than sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/84 "2015-10-06T19:35:54Z")
This happened to me once back in 1971, in Amsterdam, of all places. I and a friend had an overnight stopover there while returning from Nigeria to the US, and had gone out for a walk the morning the day when our flight was scheduled to leave Amsterdam. We were strolling along the banks of a canal, and came up on a sort of basin where tour boats were berthed. I happened to look over the bank and saw a floater who seemed to be looking right up at me - very weird. He was wearing a nice blue suit, and I still remember that he had a heavy gold ring on one of his fingers. The offices of the tour boat company was adjacent to this basin, so we went in there and, primarily by sign language, explained to the clerk that he had an unofficial visitor next door. After he figured out what we were talking about, the clerk immediately picked up his phone and started dialing - we assumed he was calling the cops. Without waiting around, I and my friend hauled ass at a very fast walking pace, and got away from there - we had not the slightest desire to discuss this with the Dutch cops, figuring that we would at the very least miss our flight that afternoon. After we were several blocks away, we could hear the police sirens as they converged on the offices of the tour boats, but by that time we were well out of sight. Always wondered what was the story behind all that. BTW, I’ll always remember those Dutch canals as about the dirtiest things I’d ever seen. Yuck. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/85 "2015-10-06T19:57:50Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > As a black Jewish trans person I’m not sure if this was meant to be a veiled insult or a joke. Either way it missed the mark. Only one of those factors is – as news report after news report will bear out – enough to turn police from protectors into killers. Layer those factors and avoiding police becomes as realistic a survival strategy as avoiding criminals. > > The “paranoid” responses here may be actual paranoia _from the people making them_. That doesn’t mean that the worry of police misdeeds is moot for everyone. But maybe I’m still reeling from the cop screaming profanities in my elderly (not Jewish, not transgender) mother’s face when she called to report a stolen car abandoned and parked largely in our front yard. Somehow I’ve managed to remain ignorant of the details of your personal life, so my remark was meant neither an insult or a joke. Anyone with well-founded fear of the police should just let somebody else find the body, dead or not. I realize that being a middle-aged lapsed Catholic white woman gives me “privilege.” The police would probably consider most of the guys claiming they’d “lawyer up” first just as harmless; although their need for legal representation might ring a few bells. Call 911 or pass on by. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/86 "2015-10-06T20:39:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Is a suspected murder not a crime or potential crime? Do police normally not want to talk to the person who found the body? I’m actually largely disputing that the mere act of notifying the police that you have found some random stranger’s body automatically converts you into a serious suspect. Such has not been my experience (or the experience of several others in this thread who have recounted their own experiences of finding a stranger’s body and reporting it). Granted, if you have some relationship to the recently deceased, then that changes things. Or if you discover the recently deceased in a location that raises questions in and of itself (your own front porch, your bathroom, in your car, under your car, in a place of business you don’t work at well after business hours, in Yankee Stadium in December, or really any location where the question “What the hell were you doing there anyway?” is appropriate), then that changes things as well. But finding the corpse of a total stranger on your way to work? Or spying a floater on your morning jog along the riverbank? My contention is that puts you pretty squarely into the role of “disinterested witness” absent other considerations, and that the police will treat you as such. In that scenario, you’re basically equivalent to a pedestrian who sees a hit and run car accident or someone knocked on their ass by a fleeing mugger. I’m also going to opine that the statement “My client requested I call and report that he discovered a corpse at X location at Y time” issued by an attorney on behalf of their client to a 911 operator is inherently _much_ more suspicious than “I was walking my dog and she found a dead person in the bushes in the park!”. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/87 "2015-10-06T21:13:58Z")
I think the safest course of actions based on history is to contact an Olsen twin and have her send over her private security to discreetly handle it. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/88 "2015-10-06T21:20:33Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > I think the safest course of actions based on history is to contact an Olsen twin and have her send over her private security to discreetly handle it. But what if it IS one of the Olsen twins? :eek: Oh, wait, I guess there’s still the other one. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/89 "2015-10-06T21:30:45Z")
> [@Aangelica](#): > > Granted, if you have some relationship to the recently deceased, then that changes things. Or if you discover the recently deceased in a location that raises questions in and of itself (your own front porch, your bathroom, in your car, under your car, in a place of business you don’t work at well after business hours, in Yankee Stadium in December, or really any location where the question “What the hell were you doing there anyway?” is appropriate), then that changes things as well. But finding the corpse of a total stranger on your way to work? Or spying a floater on your morning jog along the riverbank? My contention is that puts you pretty squarely into the role of “disinterested witness” absent other considerations, and that the police will treat you as such. In that scenario, you’re basically equivalent to a pedestrian who sees a hit and run car accident or someone knocked on their ass by a fleeing mugger. Right. I think we agree on the basics here, just not the conclusion. Is your list exhaustive? Do you know _all_ the circumstances in which a body could be found and cause police to be suspicious of the finder? Do you know all the situations that would reliably cause police to rule you out as a suspect? Do you think the average guy walking his dog in the park knows all those situations and what the police will or will not find suspicious? I certainly don’t. You’ve given some vague guidelines, but are those the guidelines the police will follow? Are you certain of that? In all jurisdictions? These are the minefields lawyers are trained to navigate. I am not, the average person is not. I’m not sure of any of it, therefore I would call a lawyer. If you’re certain you won’t ever be considered a suspect by the police for a crime you didn’t commit, continue to discuss details of the crime scene with them without counsel. But I can’t guarantee that sense of certainty for either myself or another party, that’s why I suggest people talk to a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/90 "2015-10-06T23:09:05Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Right. I think we agree on the basics here, just not the conclusion. Is your list exhaustive? Do you know _all_ the circumstances in which a body could be found and cause police to be suspicious of the finder? Do you know all the situations that would reliably cause police to rule you out as a suspect? Do you think the average guy walking his dog in the park knows all those situations and what the police will or will not find suspicious? I certainly don’t. You’ve given some vague guidelines, but are those the guidelines the police will follow? Are you certain of that? In all jurisdictions? These are the minefields lawyers are trained to navigate. I am not, the average person is not. > > I’m not sure of any of it, therefore I would call a lawyer. If you’re certain you won’t ever be considered a suspect by the police for a crime you didn’t commit, continue to discuss details of the crime scene with them without counsel. But I can’t guarantee that sense of certainty for either myself or another party, that’s why I suggest people talk to a lawyer. Have you ever actually tried to talk to a lawyer on short notice? The odds that you will succeed are very very slim, at least in my neck of the woods. You know about a body, you’ve got an appointment to discuss it with the lawyer next Thursday at 2, and you don’t think the cops will find that suspicious? Or even better (worse): the corpse wasn’t quite a corpse yet, but he became one while you were searching through the phone listings for an attorney. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may now have given the cops [reason to arrest you](http://volokh.com/2009/11/03/duty-to-rescuereport-statutes/), and even where there is no duty to rescue, you have given grounds for suspicion (“you left him to die; is that because you wanted him dead? maybe you’re the one who hit him.”) Do you know all of the circumstances in which failure to report would make you the chief suspect? If you have some personal characteristics that make you a more likely target of police interest (a criminal background, or in some areas a certain ethnicity, e.g.), maybe an anonymous call to 911 and then getting the heck out of Dodge would be preferable to leaving your name, but running off to find an attorney is almost always going to be seen as more suspicious than just calling it in. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/91 "2015-10-07T00:08:22Z")
So what if you ARE the killer? Either accidentally or straight up 1st degree murderer, is “911 first” still the general consensus? (Need answer fast) ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/92 "2015-10-07T00:14:56Z")
At the very least a pass must be given for not informing the police if one has just murdered someone else. Imagine the hilarity and hi-junks to be had by a murderer getting away with one killing, only to swing for one he had nothing to do with, as in **Kind Hearts & Coronets**! Keep Walking. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/93 "2015-10-07T01:39:57Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > May I be rude enough to suggest that if DNA testing ordered way back in 2008 has not cleared her yet, then perhaps it showed that she really does deserve to be on death row after all? She doesn’t need evidence to clear her - there isn’t sufficient evidence to convict her. The courts consider “did 12 idiots find her guilty? must be” in their appeals process basically. You have to actually prove your innocence unless you can show the actual technical court process contained grievous errors. (and “the jurors were mouth breathing morons” is not considered an error) ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/94 "2015-10-07T01:47:17Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > So what if you ARE the killer? Either accidentally or straight up 1st degree murderer, is “911 first” still the general consensus? (Need answer fast) “come clean and we’ll go easy on you” is a lie and an interrogation tactic. Fact is, your best interests are served by not telling the authorities anything at all unless a signed deal giving you something in return is in front of you and it has been checked by an attorney. So this applies to 911 as well. At a minimum, you need to think it through and think about how it’s going to look. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/95 "2015-10-07T02:51:40Z")
I would call law enforcement and give them statements and answer any questions they may have. Why would I call lawyers, unless I was the one responsible for the dead body? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/96 "2015-10-07T07:59:45Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > So, it is starting to appear that the consensus is NOT to take the body home where you can perform your experiments in private… Are you nuts ? American peasants don’t stick to torches and pitchforks (as is traditional), they got guns ! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/97 "2015-10-07T11:38:21Z")
What does the law say about anonymous 911 calls? A guy I know who lives in NYC left his building for work and found a probable OD on his stoop. He called 911 and reported a non responsive individual, but did not ID himself so as not to be late for work. There were no repercussions. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/98 "2015-10-07T12:04:07Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > You can always say nothing and go about your business. :rolleyes: Then the murderer has a better chance of never being caught. Time could erase evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/99 "2015-10-07T12:05:12Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > What does the law say about anonymous 911 calls? > > A guy I know who lives in NYC left his building for work and found a probable OD on his stoop. He called 911 and reported a non responsive individual, but did not ID himself so as not to be late for work. There were no repercussions. How could you do that anymore? There are no pay phones and the cops have caller id. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303/100 "2015-10-07T12:39:19Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > How could you do that anymore? There are no pay phones and the cops have caller id. Call from work? The guy in NY used his cellphone and never heard back from popo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-legally-if-you-find-a-dead-body-in-america/733303.md?page=6)