One sunny day, you’re walking back home from a relaxing trip to the Farmer’s Market,
organic avocados in hand, when boom!: you find a dead body. After considerable shrieking,
what do you do now? How do you handle things? We asked every unfortunate jogger and dog walker
that had stumbled on a corpse in the first three minutes of a “Law & Order” episode, to find out.
First things first: remain calm. We know it’s easier said than done
after tripping on a dead person, but here’s why it’s important.
You don’t really know how you’d react to finding a dead body until you do. People experience a range
of horrifying emotions ranging from understandable ones like sadness, to nausea and anger. However,
throwing up all over the place or letting out a scream might not be the best idea because…
You have to make sure you’re safe. This is very dependent on context,
including where you find the body and what it looks like, of course. If this
is an elderly relative who seems dead of natural causes, you’re probably alright.
However, if you come across a dead body while out and about, or visiting someone’s home,
and either the location is isolated or the scene appears to show signs of violence,
there’s a chance this corpse has been the victim of foul play.
That means there’s a more than decent chance the perpetrator might still be in the area.
So if you are facing a scenario like that, try to stay quiet and get yourself to safety first.
Can’t help a dead body if you become one yourself!
Immediately get to a public and/or safe place,
and dial 911 - or the analogous emergency number in your country. If you fear you are in danger,
wait for authorities to arrive before returning to the scene.
If, however, you believe you’re safe, or the death doesn’t seem like a crime scene,
you might want to keep authorities on the phone to help you with something else.
Because, you see, the dead body you found might not actually be a dead body...yet.
There are an enormous number of cases in which people who have been found dead,
or at least were believed to be dead, turn out to be alive and well, just less conscious than
usual. There are even rare cases in which people are believed to be dead for so long
that they end up buried alive! But that’s another nightmare scenario for another video.
Let’s focus on our current, presumably - but not certainly! - dead body for now.
If the coast is clear, stay on the phone with the emergency operator, and follow their instructions
to see if your corpse is potentially breathing, something corpses aren’t generally supposed to do.
One thing an operator might ask you to do is to check closely to see if their ribcage is rising.
That’s one of the best ways to check for signs of breathing without actually touching a body.
In that scenario, it’s possible the operator will guide you through some temporary life saving
procedures to help the almost corpse out. However, and we cannot stress this enough...even if you
were the annoying teacher’s pet of your CPR class, you should still wait to follow the operator’s
instructions. They deal with these situations every day, and they know the best way to proceed.
However, unless it’s necessary to save a life, refrain from touching the body
unless absolutely necessary. This is important for two big reasons.
First of all, if you have, in fact, stumbled upon a crime scene,
touching the body means your hairs, skin cells, and sweat are going to get on the victim and
compromise the scene. Best case scenario, the cops get pissed at you for getting your dumb
DNA all over their dead body and making their lives more difficult. Worst case scenario,
your DNA is the only one they end up finding on their victim, making that fact that you touched
the corpse look like an attempt to cover up your crime, and they charge you for murder
because there are no other leads and this case really needs to get wrapped up soon.
If the dead body is not a victim of foul play,
you’re still probably unsure of what killed them. If it’s a highly contagious disease,
it might be a type that remains active on a person even after death, infecting anyone who might come
too close. Since we assume you would want to avoid contracting a virus that just killed someone - no
longer a certainty in our world - this is another great incentive for staying away from the corpse.
Other possible contamination can occur if the dead body visibly has blood on it. Coming into
contact then puts you at risk - usually low risk unless you yourself have an open wound,
but still - for contracting whatever bloodborne diseases they may have.
Moral of the story: please avoid touching dead bodies if you happen to find any.
In fact, you should apply the no touch rule to pretty much everything in the space you are
currently occupying. Besides necessary incursions on the environment, like the soles of your feet
touching the ground, try to avoid touching, messing up, or moving literally anything
else around you. Again, you can never be sure what may end up being a crime scene.
Wait until the authorities arrive. Now, more of your real work begins.
If paramedics think the person lying on the floor may still be alive, they will ask you a whole lot
of questions about how you found them, the details of what you’ve observed since finding them,
et cetera. If the body is for sure dead, police are also going to need you to stay and give your
statement, so they can start an investigation to determine the cause of death. If the death is
found to be the result of a crime, your statement can help lead authorities to the perpetrator.
So if you discovered a dead body and saw a man covered in blood fleeing in the opposite
direction, maybe take a minute to memorize what he looks like and mention it to the grizzled old
detective with one last case to wrap up before he retires. He’s already been through so much.
However, what if you do actually see the tail end of a crime being committed
or see a suspected criminal flee a crime scene and get scared to testify? Or hell,
what if you just don’t want to get involved in a criminal court proceeding, but still don’t feel
right about stumbling across a dead body and then continuing on your carefree Chipotle run?
Well, you do have the option to report finding a dead body anonymously. However, some legal experts
will advise you that this can bring unnecessary suspicion upon yourself, as it’s hard to call
authorities from your cell phone and remain truly anonymous. And let’s be real, payphones don’t
work and everyone got rid of their landlines years ago, so there go all your other options.
Besides being a morally sound decision,
reporting a dead body is actually legally mandated in some states as well.
As of 2021, approximately 18 states, including Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Florida - admit
it, you’re surprised Florida cares about this - require residents to report a dead body, whether
they come across it accidentally or simply have heard that a dead body is at a specific location.
Of course, if your friends discuss things like the location of unfound dead people
they’re aware of for some reason, it’s likely you’re involved with some shady
people and should reassess your life choices in general.
Though the strength of these laws, as well as punishments for failure to report in a timely
manner vary by state, they range from fines to being charged with a misdemeanor. After all,
if citizens fail to report dead bodies they find on time, it causes countless
headaches for police officers, especially as every day that passes after a death makes it
harder and harder to find preserved evidence, track leads, and determine cause of death.
The good news is, the vast majority of people call authorities when finding a corpse unprompted,
even without laws pressuring them to do so, because it’s the right thing to do.
We would call that a win for humanity if it didn’t feel like such a low bar to clear.
The few times people have failed to report deaths, it usually involves drug addiction or mentally ill
behavior like hoarding. One 74-year-old woman in Massachusetts failed to report the death of
her younger sister for a year and a half while she decomposed in the home they shared. She was found
under the kitchen table and endless piles of other stuff, as the homeowner in question was a hoarder.
There are no jokes to make here, this is just an incredibly depressing story. But,
a good example of one of the rare times dead bodies don’t get reported.
Up until now, we’ve mostly covered the standard
procedure for what to do if you find a dead body out in the wild,
whether “wild” in your case means “hiking in the woods”, or “next to your parking spot at Walmart”.
But what should you do if you find a dead body in your own or a relative’s home, for example,
a relative that’s likely passed away due to natural causes?
Well, if the death is expected - for example, the person has been suffering from a terminal illness
and their health was recently deteriorating - check for a pulse or signs of breathing first.
If there are none, and you have confirmed the person is dead, sometimes people take a minute
to say goodbye to their loved ones before initiating medical and funeral protocols.
As strange as it may seem to not immediately call authorities, it’s a relatively common occurrence,
as a family member or spouse may want one last intimate moment of peace with their dead loved
one before medical personnel and others flood their house and take the body away.
However, if the death is unexpected, the first step, as in our previous scenario,
is to immediately call your country’s emergency number. While you wait,
another step you can take is to either remember and take note of,
or take a look around to let authorities know what medication the deceased might have been taking.
This may possibly help them ascertain a cause of death, or, if the body on the floor has overdosed
and is unconscious but still alive, to save them. When the authorities arrive, they will
make a legal pronouncement of death, which will be necessary for the eventual death certificate.
One last step that many people don’t think of, but usually ends up being necessary,
is talking to a psychologist or other mental health professional.
This is obviously an incredibly important step if you knew the person whose body you found,
as you will need to process feelings of grief in addition to shock. However,
it is likely necessary even if the corpse you found was that of a complete stranger.
Finding a dead human being can have all kinds of strange psychological impacts
that don’t always show up right away.
Writer Mary Pilon spoke about her experience discovering the dead body of a lawyer
named David Buckel while she was, in a rather cliche turn, on her morning run. Pilon writes,
“the PTSD from such witnessing doesn’t go away after a day or two. I had never met this man, yet
his death now impacted my life in a way that was going to stick around far beyond a news cycle.”
His death brought up feelings of grief within her for people in her family and her close
circle who had died, feelings of anger, and a whole lot of trauma she didn’t expect.
She is far from the only one to go through something like this after finding a dead body.
Others may have milder reactions to the same event, but just to be sure,
a licensed therapist can help guide you and help you sort out
whatever unexpected emotions you might experience after such a tragic finding.
At the end of the day, finding a dead body, whether a loved one’s or a stranger’s,
is a horrible, traumatic experience that can shock many people out of using their brain
or common sense. This is why certain procedures, such as the ones outlined in this video,
are strongly recommended by medical authorities and police, in order to
help guide everyday citizens in what to do if they experience such a situation.
Following these protocols can help deliver assistance to those who may still be alive,
justice for those who are the victims of a crime, or at the very least,
news of the passing to a dead person’s loved ones as soon as possible.
Now that you know exactly what procedure to follow for your next guest star on “CSI”,
what surprised you most about the procedures to follow after finding
a dead body? If you want to learn more about more lighthearted topics,
like nuclear disaster or all the ways an elevator can kill you, check out some of our other videos!