Possible body in a freezer. Procedure?

[egpenny]

Me again,
The scene is a storage unit, the Deputy Sheriff has been called out and can smell the odor of something dead in the unit. He suspects there is a possible body in a chest freezer that has the lid duct taped shut. (No electric power in the unit either.)

Question: Would he call in Crime Scene or open the chest to make sure it is a human although common sense would tell him it wasn't a deer or some animal. Seems like he'd make the call and wait. What would you do? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[Samuel]

"3. Microwave Thawing

The microwave, as you might expect, offers the speediest method of defrosting food.

Set your microwave to the "defrost" or "50 percent power" setting while thawing to ensure that the outer edges of the food don't become cooked while the remainder is still frozen. If you're defrosting a package of meat, poultry or fish that is in pieces, separate them as the food thaws.

If you use the microwave thawing method, you’ll need to cook the food immediately after it’s thawed. Once you’ve cooked the food, you can safely refreeze it if you like."

[Kimble]

Question: Would he call in Crime Scene or open the chest to make sure it is a human although common sense would tell him it wasn't a deer or some animal. Seems like he'd make the call and wait. What would you do? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Something like this will vary based on department policies for major crime scenes and what resources are available (i.e. not every department has a "CSI" unit, in fact many do not). You could write this really any way you wish and it wouldn't be wrong, as there's no absolute standard for how something like that would be handles for every agency in the U.S.

[Samuel]

Me again,
The scene is a storage unit,
What kind of storage unit?

the Deputy Sheriff has been called out and can smell the odor of something dead in the unit.
Who called the DS? How does the DS and/or reporting party KNOW that something is "dead" in the unit - as opposed to something like meat gone bad?

He suspects there is a possible body in a chest freezer that has the lid duct taped shut. (No electric power in the unit either.)
How does he know there is a chest freezer in the unit? Can he see inside or is it open? If open, was it left open or did the reporting party open it? Why does he suspect that a body is in the freezer - as opposed to stored meat gone bad? No electricity meaning the power went out or there was never power to begin with?

Question: Would he call in Crime Scene or open the chest to make sure it is a human although common sense would tell him it wasn't a deer or some animal.
What "totality of the circumstances" would lead the DS to believe that the odor is coming from a dead body/human remains - as opposed to a deer or some animal or meat or a combination of guts or trash or whatever? Why would he rule out every other possible explanation except for a dead body?

Seems like he'd make the call and wait.
It's your story, you can have him do whatever you want. Choices/options/discretion is going to vary from individual to individual and department policies/procedures can also vary from agency to agency.

What would you do?
Probably call BJJVad and tell him to open the freezer up and tell me what it looks like. Will depend upon all the circumstances.
Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Btw, IRL, sometimes you can find a dead body and it's obvious it's a dead body. Other times, you can find a couple of hefty bags full of nasty rotting meat-like substance and you won't have a clue what the hell it is (and neither can the fire department, EMTs, or anyone else there at the scene). If there aren't any bones or teeth, the meat is all jumbled up and the rotting is well under way, good luck figuring it out until way later...

Remember, it's YOUR story....

[retdetsgt]

The police wouldn't be able to search without a search warrant and the smell of something dead won't cut it unless there is something else to make them believe it's a dead human.

The storage facility owner usually has a right to enter the unit to check for something hazardous since it's in the contract that nothing hazardous can be stored. However, they can't do it at the direction of the police or in any way act as an agent. (There's a real fine legal line there) IF the management goes in and finds a dead body, the police can remove the body, but they have to get a search warrant to search the rest of the unit for any other evidence.

[mcsap]

A search without a search warrant requires exigent circumstances ( an emergency ) . If there is a dead body , there is no hurry needed. A smaller agency would just open it. A larger agency would have detectives/ forensic people on hand.

[kels]

Sorry mcsap, a small agency is gonna dump it (literally)into the hands of the State Bureau of Investigation. LOL

[egpenny]

Samuel: It's a mini-storage business, the owner has opened the unit, because the renter hasn't paid rental on it for the prescribed time and he was going to inventory what was there. He rolled the door up and saw a car and a chest-stlye freezer, he smelled the stench of death, rolled the door back down and called the Sheriff. He didn't know what it was, only that it was dead.
This is a storage facility with no power to the units, the Deputy is pretty positive no one would put a deer or any other meat in a unit, why would they unless they were up to no good. The fact that the unit rent stopped being paid is a detail that matters, later in the story. Wouldn't that relieve the need for a search warrant?I see what you mean by why would the Deputy rule out anything, but a body...I think I'd better make him check it out for himself, before he calls it in. The county I set this story in only has one CSI person...could be my Deputy is that one guy. Yeah that would work even better.
Thanks for reminding me about decomposition, the man's been in the freezer for four months, so I will factor that into what my guy sees when he opens the lid. I don't think Vicks will cover it much.

Thank you all for the replies and comments, you are all a big help and I truly appreciate the time you take to answer me. Now I need to go rewrite my scene

[Samuel]

Remember that the owner of a business will have legal hoops he has to jump through in order to do certain things like repossess/reclaim a storage unit and everything in it.

Maybe the renter of the unit bought a freezer from ebay and had it delivered to his storage space. Maybe the renter suffers from some medical condition that keeps him in/out of bed or the hospital. Maybe the person selling the freezer filled it up with game meat thinking there would be power where it was being delivered. Maybe the renter had a friend/proxy meet the delivery guys hired by the ebay seller and no one there had any info on the actual deal made between the renter and the ebay seller. Maybe the renter then suffered another medical condition that left him unable to contact/pay the owner of the storage place.

OTOH, maybe there is more than one body in the freezer. Maybe the freezer is full of only human legs, left legs in particular. Maybe that freezer is the tip of the iceberg...

ha

[egpenny]

Holy moley Sam... Okay now I'll have to see a man about a storage unit and see what they have to do to repossess a unit. I'll do that tomorrow.
All those thoughts about the freezer have given me the a start of a plot line for another story, maybe a gory short story.
But anyway, the body in the freezer is the main topic of the story I'm working on now, who he is ( had been living under an assumed name for 30+ years in another state), how did he got there ( the place he's found is not near where he was headed), who put him there and why. Just one body in the freezer---this time, put there by a group of people who have been waiting a long time for him to come back to Calif., they have old scores to settle, and information to be got one way or another, that sort of thing.
AND there will be no microwaves.
Thanks for your replies, keep them coming!