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[Antonio G.]

Hello all!
My victim waited no less than 45 years before being finally casually found by workers. She, a 27 years old female, was killed and left for this long span of time in a damp, dirty basement of an abandoned facility.
She was killed in the 1930's, and she was dressed in a formal dress of the age.
What would be left of her and her clothes and shoes after such a long span of time?
Thanks in advance.

[Dave Freas]

Bones.  And possibly a few scraps of cloth and leather.

Her flesh and organs would be completely gone after all this time, either decayed away or eaten by rats, mice, feral cats and other predators.  Her bones would be laying in a pile because the ligaments holding them together would have decayed as well.  Her bones might scattered around the basement because predators may have gnawed off her fingers or toes, hands and feet, arms and legs.  Some bones may be missing entirely because these predators carried them off to some other place to dine on them.

Nothing but a few scraps (at most) of her clothing would still remain, the rest having rotted away, or been eaten/carried off by predators.  Her shoes and purse (if it was also leather) might have a better chance of surviving, but may also have rotted away to nothing.  What remains may show teeth marks from having been gnawed on by the same predators.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[Antonio G.]

Thank you, Dave!

The victim was a foreign citizen who went missing in mysterious circumstances during the 1930's and found 45 years later. The Chicago police department couldn't identify the remains after so much time. What would be the fate of the scattered bones?
Thanks in advance
Antonio

[Dave Freas]

Since she died under unknown circumstances, the police would mount a full-scale investigation into what happened to her.  They would not just throw her bones in a box and bury them in Potter's Field.

Crime scene techs would scour the basement and gather any evidence (the scraps of clothing and shoes) for clues.  They would also gather the bones and turn them over to a forensic anthropologist who would arrange them in proper anatomical order then examine them to determine height, sex, approximate age, probable ethnic origin and examine them for cause of death.

Were there signs she was murdered?  A fractured skull would, of course indicate she had been struck over the head with the proverbial blunt object.  A shattered rib or breastbone may indicate she had been shot.  Gouges on a bone could indicate she had been stabbed.

A DNA sample would be taken and processed in an attempt to identify her as well.  The FA may also be able to determine approximately when she lived and died based on other information gathered from examining the bones.

You also need to consider what happened when she disappeared.  Was her disappearance noted by friends, an employer, co-workers, or relatives?  Did they contact the CPD and ask them to search for her?  Did the police develop any potential leads?

Hope this helps.

Dave

[Old Bill]

Antonio:

If I read this right, your story is taking place in 1975. I believe DNA was in its infancy back then with few if any databases. Any comparison was one-on-one with known samples. It was also a very expensive procedure, so do some good research on this if you intend to use it. I retired in 1989 and can think of no time we ever used DNA in our investigations even tho we had several cases of found unidentified body parts. (It's possible the Medical Examiner used it, but I am unaware of the certainty of that.)

Dave nailed the condition of the body and scene very well. 45 years is a long time for an abandoned building to have a body and not be found. Was she hidden, buried, or otherwise secreted in the basement? Abandoned buildings in a city like Chicago probably have been inhabited by tramps, homeless or gangs at some point in time. Has the perpetrator left some evidence behind...murder weapon, wallet (wishful thinking )

I always encourage writers to talk with their local professionals...in your case set up a meeting with the Medical Examiner or Forensic Unit (if that's what they call them in Chicago) to discuss the details of your story. You'll find them helpful. Be serious and professional and they will be in return.

Good luck.

Old Bill

[pavanvandaal@yahoo.com]

Hello)
There are a lot of factors, which can have an influence on the decay of the corpse. Probably only bones, which are not conected by sinews will remain. But also you should consider if there were some acids, as if they were, even in a small concentration, they could totaly destroy the skeleton. And also criminalists are able to understand if the crime has commited before 1945, as then the bones won't contain strontium-90, as the nuclear weapon wasn't used by that moment.
God, this creepy essay i has written for essay writers net custom-essay-writing.com still scares me I googled really a lot about corpse's decay. Hope this information will be useful for you.