Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: thedoc on 01/08/2016 13:23:02

Title: How would the body decompose if stuffed with drugs and money?
Post by: thedoc on 01/08/2016 13:23:02

McCollonough asked the Naked Scientists:
   I am writing a fictional story in which one person "stuffs" the body of his dead wife with bags of dugs and money.  I need to know how this would effect the way the body looked when discovered 70 years later.
What do you think?

Title: Re: How would the body decompose if stuffed with drugs and money?
Post by: RD on 01/08/2016 17:06:56

If the drugs were stereotypically wrapped in latex condoms, then I don't think they would survive 70 years : the rubber would perish.

Title: Re: How would the body decompose if stuffed with drugs and money?
Post by: evan_au on 01/08/2016 22:18:17

The body would decay much faster than 70 years, so after perhaps 1 year in the soil, there would be a skeleton, with scraps of hair, skin, nails (and anything else that insect larvae find indigestible) and clothes - plus the sealed money and drugs.

Scraps of the body may last a bit longer in a coffin.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrefaction

Title: Re: How would the body decompose if stuffed with drugs and money?
Post by: Tim the Plumber on 02/08/2016 17:53:20

See Iggy Pop.

Title: Re: How would the body decompose if stuffed with drugs and money?
Post by: alancalverd on 02/08/2016 18:46:31

Unless it was frozen, irradiated or embalmed, the soft tissues of the body would disintegrate in a matter of months, but sterile organic material wrapped in oilcloth or tin cans can survive 100 years or so.