# You get caught with a dead body, are you going to prison? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796 "2025-03-18T23:10:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/21 "2025-03-20T17:34:16Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Also, don’t get roped into dispensing of a headless corpse In a [topless bar](https://nypost.com/2015/06/09/new-york-post-editor-and-film-critic-vincent-musetto-dies-at-74/) ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/22 "2025-03-20T17:36:43Z")
This is why I haven’t owned a car with a trunk since the 90s. Hard to overlook a dead body someone planted in the back of a Jeep or CR-V. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/23 "2025-03-20T18:44:16Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Yep, and as the old line goes, “you got some splainin’ to do” when the police discover you and your dead passenger. If you have a dead body, you probably touched it to move or store it, so your DNA is on it. Good luck avoiding a murder charge. 😳 If it’s your car, and you’ve owned it for a while, it’s not hard to imagine that your DNA would end up all over the body, depending on how much room to roll around in the trunk. OTOH, if your DNA is under their fingernails… _“you got some splainin’ to do”_ ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/24 "2025-03-20T18:49:58Z")
Do you really look in the backseat, let alone the cargo area every time you get into your car? I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/25 "2025-03-20T23:14:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > At least in the USA there are/were laws against mistreating a corpse. And chauffeuring them from state to state in the trunk of a Chevy probably qualifies. You don’t have to mistreat a corpse to be guilty of transporting a corpse without the proper certification. The undertaker’s lobby want’s their money. I think it’s a fine, but it probably varies by state. > [@Spiderman](#): > > Do you really look in the backseat, let alone the cargo area every time you get into your car? I don’t. How long does it take a dead body to smell? Asking as a person with a van. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/26 "2025-03-21T00:30:46Z")
I believe it’s a day or two. Definitely more than a couple of hours; I’ve been around any number of those who passed sometime overnight & they didn’t smell yet when we (EMS) were called in the morning. Oooh, now _that’s_ a way to get rid of a body after you murder 'em. Drive around a random residential neighborhood & get out & find a random unlocked car; open the trunk/hatch, toss the body in, quietly close the trunk & drive away. A couple of days later when it begins to smell they call they either ditch it somewhere or call the cops & got some ‘planin’ to do. 🤫 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/27 "2025-03-21T00:32:48Z")
Thanks. Although I park on the street. And in the summer, the van is a greenhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/28 "2025-03-21T00:36:00Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > They have similar laws in Japan. We also have a certificate we have to keep with our son’s cremated remains.. I hope we don’t have a similar law in the US. (Glances at the urns of my parents cremated remains) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/29 "2025-03-21T00:43:34Z")
would you have to shred the certificate & blow it to the wind when you scatter someone’s ashes? 🫣 ---
**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:** [March 21, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/30 "2025-03-21T01:10:41Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > I hope we don’t have a similar law in the US. (Glances at the urns of my parents cremated remains) A big difference is that in Japan the cremated bones are not pulverized so there are bone fragments remaining. The amount remaining depends on factors such as the bone density of the deceased and the temperature of the cremation. When my ex-wife’s grandmother was cremated, it was a busy day and the temperature was set higher. She (the grandmother, of course) had been bedridden for more than a decade so the fragments were much smaller. They have a ceremony and the family picks up the bone fragments and keeps those as the remains rather then the ash. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/31 "2025-03-21T01:35:17Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Drive around a random residential neighborhood & get out & find a random unlocked car; open the trunk/hatch > [@Yllaria](#): > > Although I park on the street. I’ve told the story before, but decades ago I used to park on the street w my vehicle unlocked to discourage break-ins as opposed to [open the unlocked door(s), dig around, find nothing to steal, then go on to the next victim, sparing me a broken window or worse]. Seemed a good plan at the time. Except for when they entered my unlocked car, found my garage door opener, cleaned out my garage of expensive portable shit, and could have, but did not, walk through the unlocked door into the house proper and invade my & wife’s personal space. Which mistake would have been highly fatal to them, but rather annoying to me. Winning is nice, essential sometimes, but winning without a fight is even better. Good decision there, Mr. Lowlife. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/32 "2025-03-21T04:01:21Z")
> [@"Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Though for all I know there _could_ be a body in my pickup bed, under the hard shell cover, at any given time, because I don’t check every time I drive. Notorious case from when I lived in the Quad Cities: Two guys bought a used Chevy pickup at a Davenport police department auction. One of them drove it home to a farm some distance away, where he noticed a foul odor coming from the truck bed, which was piled high with brush. He started cleaning it out and noticed a couple sets of boots, with feet in them, belonging to the decomposing bodies of two murder victims. > **[Article clipped from Quad-City Times](https://www.newspapers.com/article/quad-city-times/62726046/)** > > Clipping found in Quad-City Times published in Davenport, Iowa on 5/14/1980. The Davenport P.D. had spotted the abandoned truck on a city street and had it towed to the impound yard where it was eventually sold. I don’t know if the case was ever solved. Might’ve been uncomfortable for the truck buyer if the sheriff’s department had stopped him on the way to the farm. “You bought it at a police auction? Suure.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/33 "2025-03-21T13:25:23Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > No one has ever pinned a body on me. I’m very good at organic chemistry. Eh, easy-peasy. Just mix up a [big batch](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tGCZts3z4QQ?feature=share) of [piranha solution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPPu5tUjgmo) and don’t forget to wear protective clothing. If Walter and Jesse had used that instead of hydroflouric acid, Jesse probably could have dissolved the body in the bathtub without dissolving the tub itself. Might have even cleaned the pipes right out, since piranha solution very effectively dissolves carbon-based organics. BTW, I didn’t seek out videos about piranha solution, I got the first video served to me in my YouTube feed just the other day. I hope Google doesn’t think I’m trying to dispose of a body 😰 ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/34 "2025-03-21T23:17:22Z")
I’d talk my way out of it. _Officer, I swear he was alive and well when I stuffed him into the trunk last Wednesday_. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/35 "2025-03-22T13:07:30Z")
IIRC it was the plot point in a murder mystery set in Boston - the perp puts the body in the trunk, planning to dispose of it later. Someone who wants him caught moves the car to a no-parking zone so it gets towed. Police guy tells the second person that it basically destroyed the chances of blaming the perp. He reported the car stolen, so anyone could have put the body in after the car was moved. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/36 "2025-03-22T14:45:22Z")
So random thought on this (cos what else am I going to do? Read the news ?) if the victim is obviously a mob hit (the police discover he has recent stolen a huge pile of drugs from Big Don the Mafia godfather) and the driver is obviously a mob underling who takes instructions from Big Don (there are call logs and witnesses who can atest to this, even if they can’t prove he was specifically ordered to kill the victim or dispose of the body). Could the driver be prosecuted under RICO or similar anti organized crime statutes? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/37 "2025-03-22T19:16:17Z")
I guess the point is - they caught you with the body. If there’s enough extra evidence to imply a connection, you get charged. If you want to get off, you have to show why you are innocent - essentially, establish reasonable doubt sufficient to counter the fact that you were in possession of a dead body. Can you persuade the jury you were not aware of the body? The longer it was there, the less likey. The shorter time it was there, also, the less likely. (“This body was placed there in the last hour, where were you?”) If your car has automatic locking when you walk away for example, reasonable doubt requires explaining some means of the real perp opening your locked car. Or… You have been wearing the same clothes - according to video from the restaurant and gas station - for the last 3 hours but no blood on your clothes… “If the clothes ain’t bloody, the certainty is muddy…” The devil is in the details. What can you prove? There’s a lot more detail. This is why most murder investigations last a decent amount of time and cover a lot of detail. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/38 "2025-03-23T02:54:53Z")
So, to summarize: Are you going to jail? If you are actually innocent, there’s a decent chance your lawyer will be able to establish reasonable doubt. Are you in trouble with the law? Hell yes. You’d better hire that lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/39 "2025-03-23T03:35:08Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > If there’s enough extra evidence to imply a connection, you get charged Yeah that much is obvious. But what if there’s no extra evidence? Other than the huge mountain of evidence that is the dead body. What then? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796/40 "2025-03-23T06:43:07Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > . But what if there’s no extra evidence? There’s always evidence - so it’s a total stranger, no connection. How long has he been dead, what did he die of, has the body been moved or died in place, what was the cause of death, if the victim has wounds do they indicate left-or-right handed assaiant, was the victim bound, what else does the body indicate (like debris from ground, grass or leaves,what’s on their shoes, etc.), signs of sexual assault, drugs or alcohol in system (if so, from where)how did they open your car if it wasn’t you, what was your and the victim’s movements during the times in question (is there video survelliance of the parked car?), when and where would the body have ended up there? Did you appear nervous when the police pulled you over? Did you refuse a search of the car (following probable cause, of course) Some of these may point to guilt or innocence. Details matter. But certainly, absent indications you caused the death, or any innuendo that you wanted to or could have, they would have a hard time proving anything beyond indignity to a dead body. Even that would be a stretch if there’s no indication you knew the corpse was there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-with-a-dead-body-are-you-going-to-prison/1015796.md?page=3)