dead bodies

[kengr]

Anyone have any idea how long it'd take dead body to skeltonize in temperate forest/brush? Assume some place like Spokane, or between Portland and Mt Hood.

Clothing something like military BDUs (except tougher) and in thick brush so nothing larger than a fox can get at it.

I'm looking for something like a year, several years, longer.


A semi related thought has to do with someone in Full MOPP gear. Died from some internal cause (say heatstroke) so the gear is intact. I'm pretty sure the result eventually be human soup with bones. Not something *I* would want to have to deal with... ewww.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I'd need more data, because it would depend a lot on what time of year the person died, what the exact site conditions are like (is it near water, is the body exposed or in sheltered spot etc)

But typically a ball park figure would 1 to 2 years before it was fully skeltonized. It's not foxes or other large animals that generally skeltonise bodies, but insects.

And yeah, decomp soup is generally not nice stuff...ask me how I know. Although if he/she was wearing black tactical and exposed to sunlight, the body is more likely to end up mummified.

[kengr]

I'm figuring moderately sheltered (ie he crawled into something like a berry tangle or worse to hide and then died). Not too near water.

So several years is quite usable for my purposes.

As for the other, I don't have personal experience but I've talked to people who have. Car went off a road and down a hillside and ended up in brush. Driver died and wasn't found for weeks. In the summer time.