Bizarre Discovery

[Candy]

Woman in car crash 'already dead'

Ishikawa's husband, Masayuki, 32, survived the initial crash after the car hit a concrete wall then rebounded and hit the lane divider in the center of the highway, Kyodo said.

But the impact threw the couple's 3-year-old son, Masamune, out of the car from the front passenger seat.

When the father got out of the car to find him, both he and the child were struck by oncoming vehicles and killed, police were quoted as saying.

The woman, who was in the back seat of the car, was believed to have died one or two days before the accident, police were quoted as saying. There was no immediate explanation of how she died.

When they said this story was bizarre, they weren't kidding!

[Lance]

To say the least.

[Superluminal]

For Japan, really not that bizarre. My cousin and I were stationed in Japan together. His wife was Japanese, her father died while we there. The family picked him up from the hospital, put him in the back seat of her brothers car and took him home to prepare for the funeral. So maybe the husband just hadn't got around to having her buried.

[Candy]

International flights traveling to the US will often keep flying, if someone is discovered dead, while enroute. It saves a lot of red tape, so to speak, for the airline and the family.

[Lance]

...if someone is discovered dead, while enroute.

Is this a common occurrence?

[Candy]

...if someone is discovered dead, while enroute.

Is this a common occurrence?

More than you think. One time, a passenger died while traveling with his wife. The wife immediately started calling family from the airphone, leaving messages when no one was home. Reservations got a rash of calls asking about their uncle, cousin, etc... It was the weirdest thing. What exactly do you tell family when this happens? :)

[Lance]

What exactly do you tell family when this happens? :)

We regret to inform you that [ loved one ] experienced a transition from "passenger" to "cargo" while en route to [ destination ].

[Candy]

What exactly do you tell family when this happens? :)

We regret to inform you that [ loved one ] experienced a transition from "passenger" to "cargo" while en route to [ destination ].

[Superluminal]

Do you just leave them strapped in? On a long overseas flight that could be rather uncomfortable to sit by a dead guy for 16 hours.

[Candy]

Do you just leave them strapped in? On a long overseas flight that could be rather uncomfortable to sit by a dead guy for 16 hours.

I'm not sure what they do to the dead passenger. I would think he would just look like he was sleeping, so no need to alert the other passengers.

[Lance]

I believe it's normal to empty the bowel and bladder at time of death. I expect the "now cargo" would give it away themselves.

[Candy]

I believe it's normal to empty the bowel and bladder at time of death. I expect the "now cargo" would give it away themselves.

Depends (no pun intended) on the bowel and bladder secretions. I think. Okay, I'm thoroughly getting grossed out. I see dead people.

[Lance]

[Superluminal]

I guess thats why airliners always smelled funny to me.

[Candy]

I guess thats why airliners always smelled funny to me.

Wasn't this thread about a guy driving around with his dead wife for up to 2 days? Perhaps, the wife, was doing justice in her husband during the afterlife.

[Superluminal]

My sister worked for a bank several years ago. They had a brand new Trans Am with only 500 miles on their repo lot. The owner and two budies oded on drugs and sat on a back road for 3 days in typical August summer temps. The bank eventually gave it away to a scrap yard because the smell would knock you out when they opened the doors.

[Candy]

My sister worked for a bank several years ago. They had a brand new Trans Am with only 500 miles on their repo lot. The owner and two budies oded on drugs and sat on a back road for 3 days in typical August summer temps. The bank eventually gave it away to a scrap yard because the smell would knock you out when they opened the doors.

I think you only smell death when you know it's there. I chalk this up to urban legend.

[Superluminal]

Well, it was a small town and everybody knew what happened. So that probablly had a lot to do with it.

[Lance]

I think you only smell death when you know it's there. I chalk this up to urban legend.

I don't know the veracity of this particular story Candy, but the MythBusters did confirm this could happen in their episode "Stinky Car".

Perhaps gillianren can provide more information next time she's on.

[Candy]

Unless their skin melted off and saturated the seat covers (given they were cloth and not leather), I just don't believe there would be a smell if the car was cleaned by a professional (given the car was cleaned).

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

[Lance]

Over time, the carcasses did "liquefy" somewhat. The biggest problem was matter that had collected in the ductwork and voids in the car's body. There were places that were unreachable so no amount of cleaning would do it.

[gillianren]

oh, yes, let's talk about the one episode I've never--will never!--seen twice! ick ick ick ick!

okay, now that I've got that out of my system . . . .

so the original (well, no; it goes back so far that the original's a carriage! but the one everyone knows) is that there's this Corvette, see, and this guy, like, dies in it. (mob hit, OD, suicide--the variations are endless, really.) only it's back in the woods, right, and nobody knows he's there for, like, a really long time. and they find the car, and they clean the guy out, right, and so, like, they don't want the car--tragic reminder, etc.--so they try to sell it. only it smells like death, and no matter how much they scrub and scrub, they can't get the smell out. they try selling it a bunch of times, but the people buying it always return it, so it's, like, totally worthless.

did I get the style right? of course I did!

so the MythBusters go to test this. now, obviously, they can't just wait for a convenient mob hit/OD/suicide, so they acquire a couple of pigs that died of natural causes. (presumably to avoid waste, but the reason they had to die of natural causes was, I thought, never adequately explained.) turns out to be the hard part. that and convincing the guy who sold them the 'Vette to let them keep it even after they told him what they were going to do to it.

now, here's where I think they made it harder on themselves than they had to--they sealed the car. airtight. like, duct tape around all the cracks and everything. then, they put it in one of those giant metal storage thingies and put it in the back lot. (much speculation has gone into what their neighbors must think of all this.)

meanwhile, during the (I don't remember how long) that the pigs were merrily rotting away, they took lessons from a guy whose job it is to clean crime scenes. (and doesn't that sound like a fun job!) so when they unseal the car, he supervises them.

well, the older one--the one with the enormous moustache--nearly died from ammonia fumes, first off. like I said, sealing the car made it worse. and in the end, they had to rip up every shred of upholstery, because those pigs liquefied in there. (yay, anaerobic bacteria!) it was really, really, really gross.

they did sell the car afterward, though. sure, for parts, but the legend holds that the car couldn't be sold after, and they managed it. (and, yes, it did still kinda smell, by all accounts.)

[Lance]

(presumably to avoid waste, but the reason they had to die of natural causes was, I thought, never adequately explained.)

My guess would be to avoid pissing off PETA.

I remember how glad I was to have already finished dinner before seeing that episode for the first time.



Thanks, gillianren, for the great synopsis.

[Superluminal]

That someone would buy a 'Vette, put dead pigs in it, just to see how bad it would stink, is harder for me to believe than that people in a small town wouldn't want to touch a car that had had dead people in it for several days. That just sounds stupid.

[gillianren]

never watched the show, have you? it's their job. (well, one of them. they're also SFX guys.) if it's any consolation, it was a used 'Vette. they've bought weirder things and then destroyed them, too.