Finding a corpse is not something that just happens every day. This unique brand of horror is ridiculously traumatic, and it leaves you in a very unwanted situation. What would you do if this happened to you?
u/NiqPat: People who have happened upon dead corpses randomly, what happened?
That's a hard thing to deal with.
On a drive to work early one morning I came down a hill to see a vehicle off in a field to my right. It was upside down and on fire so I immediately stopped and called 9-1-1.
As I was running up to the vehicle, I could see the driver still strapped in. He wasn't moving or screaming, so I could only assume he was already dead. I couldn't get to him because of the fire... I really struggled with that for a while.
That's awful.
Giphy
When I was living in San Francisco there is a homeless person sprawled on the ground. I asked some passerby if we should call an ambulance and the guy at the store we were near said the homeless person did this all the time to get tips.
I got what I needed from down the street and on my way back I saw him being zipped up in a body bag by some paramedics.
A very crazy first day of work.
As a teenager in 1987 - I found a dead prostitute on my first day of work at a McDonalds. She had hung herself on the tall fence surrounding our dumpster / compactor area. I freaked and got my manager.
Horrible.
Happened at my elementary school party back around 1998. We were having a party at this teachers house with about 30 other kids and 4 other chaperones. There was a pool in the back that was about 8 feet deep. We were all jumping in and out of the pool and it was dark out. Eventually the teachers told us all to come inside because it was almost time to go home.
As were all getting out of the pool there was still someone at the bottom and wasn't moving. One of the chaperones jumped in and grabbed him. He was already dead. The whole school had a memorial for him and it was all honestly just a horrible time.
Always make sure to pay attention.
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A guy at my university was walking to class with his earbuds in and his hood over his head - he walked right across train tracks lost in thought while other people were screaming at him that the train was coming. I was about two minutes behind and saw the immediate results of this guy not paying attention.
It's a weird feeling, the matter-of-fact nature of seeing a dead person. It's not like anything else changes. The train stopped, the people who saw it were horrified, and the police came. But before the end of the week, no one at the school was even talking about it.
Don't beat yourself up.
In my second year at university, my good friend at the time went missing for two days and after getting the warden to come with me and check his room, we found him dead, he had committed suicide in the two days I hadn't seen him.
What still haunts me is that me last message to him was "hey man, you still alive" in a joking way...safe to say I've never sent anyone a message like that again.
Terrifying.
As a teenager I went on a walk through the green belt behind my house. The woods had a peculiar smell but I was used to stumbling across dead animals on rare occasion so I didn't think anything of it. Clambered over a log and looked down to find I'd stepped in her hair. She'd been left on the hidden side of the log wrapped in a tarp and was well into the process of decomposition. No lips, eyes, etc.
Went home and called my mom in a fog of shock and she called the police. They didn't really believe me and were super casual while they walked me out to the spot so I could show them where she was. Their demeanors changed the instant they saw her and from there it was all a whirlwind.
She was my age. Murdered and dumped by one of my high school teachers. I testified as a witness to finding her (never really understood why they needed that) He went to prison but I think he might be out by now. I feel terrible for her family.
It didn't traumatize me but it gave me a lot to think about in regards to the value and shortness of life. I started saying "I love you" to my family members a lot more afterward.
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I have been kayaking and found a man whose decomposition was at the burst stage.
Another time I was part of the recovery of a scuba diver who had been lost inside USS San Diego for about a month at approx 120fsw, his mask came off and eyeballs fell out as he was pushed through to me.
What an awful thing to see.
In my Junior year of high school my best friend and I were skipping school and walking around the woods by Murphy park in Park forest/Chicago Heights.
There was an older man sitting on a bench on the trail, briefcase, suit, etc.. He reached into the briefcase when he saw us, pulled out a revolver, shoved it in his mouth, and ended himself.
My friend and I sat there and freaked before we ran to his house over on Dogwood, and called the cops.
I don't know the story, all I know is I have never forgotten that smell since then.
Also, we didn't end up getting in trouble for skipping. So we had that going for us, which was nice.
Strange coincidence that this all culminated on Halloween 2017. A friend of mine living in East London noticed that a man from the flat overlooking her balcony was looking straight at her late at night. She brushed it off and finished her cigarette and went to bed.
The next evening when she was out there again she noticed the man still staring at her in the same spot. She told her housemate and they decided he was just some weirdo who liked looking out of his window. You get a lot of strange folk in London.
On the third day the man was still there, but his colour had changed and his lower jaw had dropped open. That's when they decided to call the police. The police entered the apartment block and broke into the flat. Turns out the man had rented the flat recently and had hung himself by the window by crouching with a thin rope around his neck.
The police commented to them how strange it was that he didn't leave a note behind and that he had done his laundry/neatly folded it up before killing himself.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
