Finding a dead body

T

Thunderhoof

250+ Posts
Yesterday sucked.

I live onsite where I work. There is another woman, an older lady, who lives out here too. She is a supervisor in our gift shop, and she lives with this old guy not too far away from where my wife and I are.

Anyway, yesterday at the end of the work day she went home and then came hustling back up to the visitor center, very upset. She said that she didn't know what happened but that her boyfriend was dead.

So I'm thinking, "Holy ****" as I'm sprinting out the door with our AED and a medical "go bag".

I got to the house and everything looked OK on the outside. I opened the door and my coworkers' dog greeted me. The dog is a big old yellow lab, and she was shaking, wide-eyed, and scared. I followed her into the kitchen, and there he was.

He was laying on his side. He was almost certainly dead at a glance -- gray pallor, dentures half out of his mouth, eyes slightly open but locked back a little. I went over and knelt by him, tried to get a pulse but my own was racing from the run over there. He wasn't breathing. I tried to get a pulse on his other arm, but to do so I had to move the body a little and that was when I realized that he was very cool to the touch, and fairly stiff as well.

I feel a little guilty, but part of me was relieved that I wouldn't have to do CPR or screw with the AED. I've done CPR on people twice, but it's not an enjoyable thing to do for sure.

That was when I saw the marks on his arm. The way he was laying, I could see two puncture marks clearly, with a small amount of blood running down his arm. The area was also bruised, but there was no swelling that I could discern.

The cabinet under the kitchen sink was open, and he had obviously been working on the plumbing under there when whatever happened to him happened. There were pipe wrenches laying there and an old p trap.

The dog had gone over to the corner of the room and was close to whimpering, and I thought, "Holy ****. There's a snake in here somewhere. He got bit and then had a heart attack." I picked up my gear and went back outside pretty quick, and then it dawned on me -- he had probably died under the sink, and that poor good old dog had dragged him out into the room trying to help him.

The wound were certainly consistent with a dog bite, and the fact that there was no swelling and very little blood suggested to me that the bites were post-mortem.

Anyway, the requisite phone calls were made, a deputy arrived, and then a JP to pronounce the man dead. Funeral home got there after that to take the body to Austin for an autopsy. All the while there were family members coming in, a lot of phone calls going out, and tons of crying. It was a little rough.

I called a friend of mine who is a recon Marine and asked him about finding bodies, but he said it's totally different in his line of work most of the time, that there's no comparison really between a combat zone and back here. He was sorry that it had happened.

It's amazing how fast things happen. One minute that guy had a life and a family. He was probably cussing the plumbing and maybe thinking about what he would do with the rest of his day and week after he fixed it. And then, just like that, he was done. DONE. All that's left is some cleaning up, physically and emotionally. The finality of it all is sobering and a little disturbing.

If you made it all the way through this, I congratulate you. Thanks for listening.
 
It is a very tough thing, indeed.

A few years ago I read about a healthy, 83 year old woman who was reading in a chair in her house when a runaway car crashed through the wall and killed her. 83 years on the planet ----- then that.

I have a cousin who is terminally ill with stomach cancer. He's 52 years old and the nicest, friendliest guy you'd ever want to meet.

Makes you ponder things, eh?

Make every moment an act of creation.
 
I lived in an apartment complex with 42 units. Many of the residents had been there for decades. In the 4 year period I lived there, the resident landlady dealt with about five deaths.

Periodically there would be a flyer by the mailbox with a picture of the resident that died and notice of the funeral service. The last one, notice of an "estate sale" was posted. This was run by other residents so I assume the deceased had no family nearby.

The landlady told me how she discovered one body. She received a call from a daughter of a resident asking her to check on her welfare. The landlady found her dead on the floor. When she returned to the phone, the daughter said, "Mother is dead, isn't she?"

The hardest death was that of her own son -- he was about 44 and helping on the property one day when he collapsed from a brain aneurysm. He never regained consciousness and she had to make the decision to take him off life support.

This woman is elderly herself and I think she has had enough of death and life. The only thing that keeps her going is her granddaughter, a beautiful young woman who graduated from college last year.
 
Death is part of life. None of us are getting out alive. I hope the old man had a great life. Not a bad way to die, if you ask me.

Bernard
 
Thunderhoof, I am sorry you had to go through that.

I was the one that found that my mother had finally succumbed to her cancer. She was still warm to the touch and had stopped breathing just moments before I checked on her.

Going through something like that changes you forever.

What will happen to the dog? Will the woman keep it?
 
In 1984 I couldn't get a buddy of mine to meet me when he had planned to. I went to the Co-Op and got the apartment keys from his roommate (a mutual friend), who said he was still sleeping when she left for work. When I stepped inside he was dead on the floor. Aneurysm. 34 years old.

I had to call 911, endure questions from the cops and EMS, then had to go to the Co-Op and tell his roommate what I found. She didn't handle it well, to say the least. Then I had to help her get situated in another apartment with more mutual friends, because no way was she going to stay in theirs given the circumstances.

After all of that, I finally had a few hours where the enormity of it all hit me too. It was a tough ******* day. Thunderhoof, I know what you're dealing with, and I'm sorry to hear it. I can say the tough part will pass with time, but you probably won't ever forget it.
 
Your experience sounds 10X more traumatic than mine, Texanne.

The main thing was walking into that room, not knowing what happened to the guy at all. And also being that close to an actual dead human being, which is something that not many of us do on a daily basis.

About the dog -- her name is Honey. Her owner will keep her for sure. I've always heard about dogs doing things to try and help humans in distress, but this was the first time that I have actually seen it. Honey was so emotionally affected by the whole thing, and that was startling, too. You know things are bad when even the dog is all jacked up.

Bernard, you are right in many ways. Of all the ways you could choose to die, this was not a bad one. I can almost guarantee that it was instantaneous or nearly so.

My dad is a hospital chaplain in San Antonio. He sees people die daily, and helps families deal with the fallout. He is an incredible guy. It's hard to imagine dealing with that all of the time. He says that it's better most of the time than it was when he was a minister with a congregation, though, because he can walk away at the end of the day now as opposed to working through the grief for extended lengths of time with parishoners.
 
Wow. So you think it was a snake?



My friend is a truck driver. A few months ago, another truck driver rear ended a sedan going probably 55 mph (the sedan was stopped). My buddy was first on the scene, first to call the cops. He said the lady (likely 30) and the boy (3 or 4)
frown.gif
were basically taking their last breaths. The boy was on the floor of the passenger seat (and he likely should've been in the car seat in back). I'm heartbroken just typing that because I have a son of course. He also said he had to reach around the lady to turn off the radio because it was so loud.
 
No, not a snake.

I think he had a heart attack or aneurism or something very quick like that. The bite marks looked initially like a snake bite, but then I realized that the dog had grabbed his arm and pulled him out from under the sink. So, it was a dog bite, and likely after he had already died.
 
Unfortunately, me and a friend of mine witnessed a one car rollover accident on an in interstate in Arizona last April on our way to the Grand Canyon. It happened right in front of us and the car rolled over like a toy in the median at least 75 mph. We were expecting the worst and the two of us were the first ones to get to the wreckage in the median. One guy was hanging out of the rear window, bleeding profusely and obviously dead. There was a woman trapped in the overturned car that we and some other people who had pulled over tried to get out. We later learned that the guy had in fact died in the accident.
I'd be lying if I didn't say it didn't cast a shadow over our vacation but I think it made us a bit more introspective and cautious as drivers.
It's something I'll never forget.
 
What Bernard said. I watched my mom suffer for about 8 months with cancer before she finally passed; a quick heart attack or aneurysm would have been a blessing.
 
This was a co-worker of mine - such a tragic story. Sitting through the service watching the video of his children was as tough or tougher than the service for my mom or dad. With two small boys I fall apart when there are kids involved.

"Four people died Friday evening in a two-car head-on collision on Hwy. 198 north of Mabank, just south of Van Zandt County Road 2410. Three of the victims were family members. Killed were Rick Rike, 33 and his two children, Macy Marie, 5 and Caleb Daniel, just 18 days old, of Mabank. Also killed was Justin Reller, 29, of Kemp. All were wearing seat belts or were properly restrained, according to DPS Public Information Officer Jean Dark. The DPS report states that Reller, in a 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, failed to control his speed on a right hand curve and drifted into the oncoming lane, striking the Rike’s 2005 Nissan Quest mini-van head-on."
The Link
 
Still no news from the autopsy. Honey is doing much better but still behaves like she's a little shellshocked. I'll update when and if there's news, but I feel morbidly confident that the dog was trying to save the day after the guy's sudden death.
 
In high school my best friend's dad committed suicide in the backyard with a shotgun. I can't imagine much of his head was left. Needless to say, he was cremated.

He did it in the daytime while his three kids were at school. They were all between 12-15 I think. I never asked, but I always wondered who found him first, because it was probably one of the kids.

I know that to commit suicide (or attempt it), you're probably a severely tormented person. But did the guy think that maybe his kids might see it? And, you know, someone has to clean that up. Could at least find a less messy way to do it.
 
nope, but i've had a scare.

went to see my grandpa down in Cibolo last spring and he didn't answer the door. i walked around the back yard to see him sitting in his lawn chair watering the grass, however his head was hung low.

he didn't respond to 'grandpa' and it took a few shakes for him to wake up. i was relieved. i really didn't want to be the one to call my parents. my grandma had just passed away from cancer a few years ago.
 
Long, long ago part of my work involved being around people immediately after they had died of unusual circumstances and before they had been transported away from the scene. Sometimes it was self-inflicted, but most usually they were victims of crime. Saw some absolutely horrific stuff. But the final straw was going to where a young girl -- probably six or seven -- had drowned and her father had drowned trying to save her. They were lying side by side on the bank of a creek after being pulled out, and the mother was sitting there in absolute . . . I can't even begin to describe it, but it was beyond awful, seeing a person whose life suddenly had been absolutely devastated. Have often wondered whatever happened to her.

Anyway, that was it for me. Changed my line of work and have been much happier for the past 35 years or so, although I still have visions of a lot of the stuff I saw.
 
These stories are awful.

I worked in news for several years. Once when I was in college I was interning for a small town newspaper. My managing editor and I heard on the scanner about a small plane crash along the side of a hill on the north side of town where some oil leases were.

We got there and the cops asked us if we could help with accident scene photos since it was so vast and we had a better camera. I obliged and am not sure why I did that. My editor said she didn't have the stomach for it.

Everything was burned. The six people in the plane were all charred to their seats, some ejected. Even the expressions on their faces were burned into place. Came to find out later that this family was all friends of someone I knew in town.

I tried to just do my job as best I could, not get a great "look" at anything but get the photos the police and NTSB investigators, and my newspaper needed, and get out of there. I had to throw my clothes away due to the smell. I have no idea how I blocked that out of my mind on the scene, but I'll never forget it.

Other news stories after that were terrible but that had to have been the worst thing I'd ever seen.
 
right after the texas ou game in 2004 my best friends little brother who happened to be like a brother to me hung himself. His mom went back to a shed behind the house and found him and his brother had to cut him down and try to revive him. Really messed an already disfunctional family up. Sobered me up quick as I raced over in the rain telling myself over and over that is wasn't true and he was ok. When I opened up the door and saw his dads face, it all hit me like a ton of bricks. I changed some things about my life that day. My buddy though, I think a little bit of him died as well that day.
 
Both of my parents were under home hospice care in my house. I found my mother dead just minutes after talking with her. I found my Dad dead eight days later. Again minutes after talking with him.
 
Years ago, in my UTPD days, got a call to check out an individual under the 24th Street Bridge at Waller Creek. Found someone there in a sleeping bag, they had taken cyanide and ethanol about an hour before. Had to check vitals, but did not have to try and resuscitate, because it was obvious they were dead, because of details I'd rather not post.

Several years later when I worked as a prosecutor in Brazos County, we were on call for the local JPs to make unattended or suspicious death scenes to advise whether or not the JP should order an autopsy. Very grim business, especially when someone had decided to take their own life.

It is traumatic, but I was fortunate that I never had to deal with dead children.
 
Those who posted about this being a part of their jobs reminds me of my mother's career because she was a long time nurse. She mentioned how hard it was when assigned to wards where most of the illnesses would result in the patient passing away, because she felt she did the same good job tending to them, but they did not recover. When working on an orthopedic ward or others, almost everyone recovers and you just naturally feel better about the job done.
So if you can, thank the health care and emergency care workers whose job it is to tend to the needs of critically ill or those who pass away, because it is an emotionally draining and often thankless task.
 
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