Woman Who Died in '03 Left in Front of TV

**Runaway** · 01-10-2006, 05:42 PM

From: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1491536

CINCINNATI Jan 10, 2006 — The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.

Johannas Pope had told her live-in caregiver that she didn't want to be buried and planned on returning after she died, Hamilton County Coroner O'Dell Owens said Monday.

Pope died in August 2003 at age 61. Her body was found last week in the upstairs of her home on a quiet street. Some family members continued to live downstairs, authorities said. No one answered the doorbell at Pope's home Monday afternoon.

It could take weeks to determine Pope's cause of death because little organ tissue was available for testing, Owens said.

An air conditioner had been left running upstairs, and that allowed the body to slowly mummify, he said. The machine apparently stopped working about a month ago, and the body began to smell.

"Standing outside, one could smell death," Owens said.

Police went to the house last Wednesday after receiving a call from a relative who hadn't seen Pope in years. They found a staircase behind a door blocked by a basket and climbed to the second floor, where they found the body.
It was not clear if any crimes were committed, Owens said.

Authorities did not identify the caregiver, a women in her 40s who apparently lived in the home with Pope, Pope's daughter and her 3-year-old granddaughter.

"The caregiver is not someone you'd think was from another planet or really seems off the wall (she's) a pretty normal kind of person," he said. "But I think out of loyalty, friendship and love of her friend, (she) decided to keep the body at home."

I found this hysterical but somewhat disgusting... I mean think about it.

**Yash** · 01-10-2006, 06:07 PM

Weird. And here I thought it was only done in the cartoons.

**Kury Wagner** · 01-10-2006, 06:13 PM

Holy crap, that's messed-up. And that quote "...one could smell death", he put that in such an amazingly creepy way. *shudders*

**Daffy Dork** · 01-10-2006, 06:14 PM

Probably where I'll die.

**Artimus Gigan** · 01-10-2006, 06:23 PM

And the neighbors didn't notice the smell? Seriously after a week or so the smell of a dead human becomes unberable, the entire house would have stunk. Also the ammount of flies it would attract, if left undisturbed a dead human corpse can spawn well over a few hundred flies. Also I don't think it would be possable for a person to be mummified in regular settings like that, you need it to be really dry or really cold(like freezing). Normal settings would allow the body to decay and the chest cavity to burst allowing the gasses out.

**Classic Speedy** · 01-10-2006, 06:29 PM

Yeah, someone brought this up in my Broadcast Writing class. Needless to say, everyone laughed, even if it's pretty morbid.

**solarflere** · 01-10-2006, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by Artimus Gigan

And the neighbors didn't notice the smell? Seriously after a week or so the smell of a dead human becomes unberable, the entire house would have stunk. Also the ammount of flies it would attract, if left undisturbed a dead human corpse can spawn well over a few hundred flies. Also I don't think it would be possable for a person to be mummified in regular settings like that, you need it to be really dry or really cold(like freezing). Normal settings would allow the body to decay and the chest cavity to burst allowing the gasses out.

Not to mention the amount of magets the body would create.

**Space Chief** · 01-10-2006, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by solarflere

Not to mention the amount of magets the body would create.

Are 'magets' some kind of measurement unit for stinkiness?

**Delthayre** · 01-10-2006, 08:13 PM

It's a misspelling of maggots.

**EinBebop** · 01-10-2006, 08:23 PM

I want to be cremated, and I want a window put in my urn. And put that urn on a shelf where I'll be able to see the television from my window.

**Delthayre** · 01-10-2006, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by EinBebop

I want to be cremated, and I want a window put in my urn. And put that urn on a shelf where I'll be able to see the television from my window.

That's not a bad pick. As for me, the general consensus among my friends and I is viking-style funeral pyres.

**Karl Olson** · 01-11-2006, 02:54 AM

Why she wasn't discovered: The air conditioner was acting like a de-humidifier, allowing for mummification rather than decomposition. It was also keeping the body cool in the same stroke, again, staving off decomposition in favor of mummification. The A/C likely also directed any smell away from where it'd be noticed. Basically, she probably would have been completely mummified had the A/C not conked out. Had complete mummification through dehydration occured, her corpse would not have alerted anyone to her presence, even if the A/C had conked out.

**Peter Paltridge** · 01-11-2006, 02:57 AM

After I die, a relative will be ordered to find a rich young couple and give my ashes to them. They are then to add my ashes to their food and eat me. After this they are to immediately make love, resulting in my rebirth as their son.

Note: this is not completely serious. Don't look at me that way.

**Artimus Gigan** · 01-11-2006, 03:54 AM

Originally Posted by Karl Olson

Why she wasn't discovered: The air conditioner was acting like a de-humidifier, allowing for mummification rather than decomposition. It was also keeping the body cool in the same stroke, again, staving off decomposition in favor of mummification. The A/C likely also directed any smell away from where it'd be noticed. Basically, she probably would have been completely mummified had the A/C not conked out. Had complete mummification through dehydration occured, her corpse would not have alerted anyone to her presence, even if the A/C had conked out.

that's not possible

an AC doesn't generate that much of a sustaining temperature drop. You would need it to be a freezer, like the entire room would need to be like a walk-in freezer and sealed so the cold air would not be able to get out. But even with an AC the air eventually warms up. An AC also will not generate enough dehymidifying power to dry out a corpse.

Also blowing the smell away with an Ac doesn't work, the smell will get thru ans stink up the entire place no matter what. Hell leave an entire chicken out over the weekend and then comeback on monday, it will stink up the entire house even in places where you thought were sealed. Dead things smell, and the smell will linger and spread.

the larger the corpse, the more it will stink...

**Karl Olson** · 01-11-2006, 04:19 AM

Don't shoot the messanger, I'm just trying to clarify the scenario the article suggests.

**Elven Moon** · 01-11-2006, 02:21 PM

Ugh. You couldn't even get me to live in the same neighborhood, let alone downstairs!

**Runaway** · 01-11-2006, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by Elven Moon

Ugh. You couldn't even get me to live in the same neighborhood, let alone downstairs!

Yeah, it is really disgusting...

**Conekiller** · 01-11-2006, 05:01 PM

And the people livng downstairs didn't notice they hadn't seen her in more than a year? something smells fishy....

**Swordfish_II** · 01-11-2006, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by Artimus Gigan

an AC doesn't generate that much of a sustaining temperature drop.

In my experience, those window box units can get a room quite cool. And this is a large, over the garage, room. In the south. And it stays a lot cooler in Ohio.