[Fiction question] (Warning: This one is a little yucky) How fast do bodies decompose?

How deep is it buried?

If it is a few inches, there will be flies, insects, other animals etc. to consider.

Let’s see. I’d say about four feet, maybe a little more. How deep should it be buried?

What I really want to know is, if after three months the dog is dug up and the hole is made deeper and a human body is laid down, and the dog is put back on top of the human corpse, is the dog’s body actually going to be in a state where it can be handled that way?

I can make it a little more than three months if I have to, but if there isn’t much difference between three and four, I’d rather not change the dates.

Sorry. I’d only read the question.

This might be of some help. Not safe for the squeamish!

Do you need more details about soil and climate than I put in the question?

‘S ok—I thought maybe you really did.

The pig in those pictures appears to be lying exposed on the ground. I would think it would be different a few feet underground. Wouldn’t it? I don’t really want to go into a lot of detail about this part, but I do want to deliver a good shudder with a small but sincere helping of realistic description.

Then this information would be better. One photo is of a body buried for a year in 1.2 meters of soil, which is about 3.4 ft or so, right? Apparently, blow flies and the like can burrow in the ground if they smell the body.

Thanks, that does help some. It’s clear that the body won’t be in very good condition. Will it hang together enough to be moved, or will it fall apart? Will it stink?

Doesn’t appear to be the case, no, it won’t hold together. The stinkiest period might have passed after 3 months.

Rats. I wonder if the cloth wrapping would hold it. A little stink would also be nice for atmosphere.

You might want to contact The Body Farm. They should be able to answer your questions.

Perhaps if the body was tightly wrapped in polyester fabric?

@Jeruba I don’t know about body decomposition, but that’s so intriguing—burying a body under where the dog was and reburying the dog.

put the dog’s body in a duffel bag instead?

This book has a creatively constructed and extremely detailed description of a human body decomposing on the surface of the ground. It’s told as what someone would hear of the process through a microphone and receiver – a very interesting take. It evoke a lot of visual imagery, too, of course. Much of what Palahniuk describes would also apply to a buried dog body. Unfortunately, the relevant pages are 350–353, and Google Books will not give us 351–352. My copy is, naturally, in a box in a basement in another state. But leaf through it if you run by the library – you’ll see what I mean.

It was 1969. The owners were hippie transients staying at a refuge for draft dodgers in New Hampshire that was sort of an underground railway station for people headed north. The dog was killed by a bobcat in the night, and they carried its body up to the meadow slung between two poles. I thought they just wrapped it in a sheet or something. I don’t think anybody would have given up a duffel bag, and I don’t think anybody there was wearing polyester. They were all in jeans and T-shirts and tie-dye and batik.

That happened in April. Three months later, in July, a murder occurred right there in that meadow, and the body was buried in the same unmarked grave, beneath that of the dog, where the earth was already disturbed.