Young Writers Society

Hi. I have quite a few strange questions.

1: How long after the body skeletonizes does the stench of decay stick around? The body in question has been in a mid-seventy degree, dry area.

2: Does the liquid that comes out of the body during decay stain carpet?

3: What exactly does decay smell like?

Thanks for answering my questions, have a virtual helium balloon in advance!

*Hands balloon to you*

Hello. I have some answers based on personal experience, yes. I hope you have a fairly strong stomach. XD

I unfortunately don't have an exact figure for the first question, but a long time, often years. For example, interiors of cars and houses that have had decomposed bodies often have to be completely replaced because the smell never truly goes away, and insurance companies will often consider the vehicle totaled rather than attempt to salvage it via reconditioning.

The reconditioning process often involves gutting the thing to be reconditioned, removing all the fabrics and materials that hold onto the smell, in addition to employing specialized cleaning products that specifically target all the residues left behind that cause the smells.

On a side note, I had a friend who visited Rwanda several years after the genocide there, and she told me that many of the churches she visited still reeked of death.

For your second question, the answer is "oh definitely yes", and it's not so much liquid that comes out of the body so much as all the soft tissues liquefy. It's a pretty gross process, and one I saw (and smelled) a lot of during my time preparing donated specimens for my university's wildlife collection one summer. A lot of them were roadkill locals had dropped off, so there weren't any efforts made to preserve the bodies, and said bodies had often been placed inside plastic bags, so opening those was an experience every time. Nothing better than sludge of week-dead deer leaking out of a trash bag onto your shirt, seeping through to the skin, then trickling down your leg into your shoe to start off the day with! :D

I had to burn those shoes. And the socks. And the pants. And the shirt. Even my underwear. There was no salvaging them. I tried.

The third question is really, really hard to answer, and it's one I've been trying to figure out how to describe for years because it's one of those scents that is so unique, you have to experience it to really understand what it smells like.

The most common description is of it being "sickly-sweet", which it definitely is, but such a trite description does not do the sheer experience of it justice. If you've lived in an area that at least occasionally gets warmer temperatures and doesn't have reliable roadkill cleanup, and if you ride around with your windows down, you may have already caught the barest whiff of it as you sped past decaying roadkill.

In a more up-close-and-personal environment, however, the smell is almost a physical force with how strong it is, especially if you're in an enclosed space. It's like someone taking a sledgehammer to your sinuses while simultaneously ramming an unholy blend of cheap perfume, overripe fruit, and rotten meat up your nose and down your throat. No matter how many times you've smelled it, you are never prepared for the actuality of encountering it again. Your eyes will water. Your gut will churn. You will regret eating that bagel for breakfast as the bile rises in the back of your throat. It quite literally takes your breath away. And you will also regret it if you try to breathe through your mouth because if you thought smelling it was bad enough, tasting it on your tongue is like a bajillion times worse.

Blech.

Thanks, @Kyllorac for your... ahem... very detailed answers. XD

I actually have a very strong stomach. I knew vaguely about the process because I wrote a science paper on it (at the time I was very interested in being a forensic pathologist).

However, this answer was very useful! I may actually use that description in my future writing, if you don't mind. XD

I have a very strong stomach myself, but even I have a hard time holding my breakfast down upon every fresh encounter. It's not a smell you ever get used to, especially at the more extreme levels of putrefied in an enclosed space.

I'd recommend experiencing it for yourself because it really is a unique smell, and different stages of decomposition lend different nuances to the aroma. :P

Alright, thanks!