CA/GA "experts" on Human Decomposition Smell - ??

[OKaraMia]

Why would CA use the words "Smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car" if she was not aware of what a dead body smelled like?

Because EVERYONE knows what "dead" smells like.


Right now it smells like theres damn coffee in the kitchen.
Oh my bad... it is pizza.

 

[ZsaZsa]

Because EVERYONE knows what "dead" smells like.


Right now it smells like theres damn coffee in the kitchen.
Oh my bad... it is pizza.

Apparently a lot of people on this forum do not know what 'dead' smells like or so many would not search for any other explanation as to what CA really meant when she said she smelled a dead body. Several have suggested that Nurses would not have experience of dead human flesh, as if it were a rare occurrence. It is not, it is something any Nurse with years of experience would have encountered.
Obviously CA smelled it, because when she smelled it again she recognized it instantly, you can her the fear in her voice when she describes the car.

 

[ZsaZsa]

Bolded by me: The lingering smell of decaying human flesh, to which several sources on both "sides" of this case attested in the early days of the case,.

I must have missed this one. Who attested to the lingering smell of decaying human flesh? I need a link for this one. I must have missed it because I do not remember anyone saying this.

That lingering smell of human decomposition was still very pungently present in the car more than two months later.

 

[ZsaZsa]

Smells like indicates to me just that, smells like.

Like a tennis ball looks like a baseball but its not.

Like its an adipocere like substance, but its not adipocere.

The definitive way to put it is. The smell I smelled in the car today was the smell of a dead body.

Do the bodies that Ca smells, smell like a body that was in a trunk for 2.6 days and then taken out and then the car sat for 3 weeks?

When was the last time Ga smelled a body that had sat around. Or did he ever? Why is Ga challenging Ym about the smell of human decomp?

The funny thing is, is that there was no body in the trunk, nor any trace of a body in the trunk.

Imo they do not qualify as experts and neither does anyone else, at least I do not believe there is any police officer or expert that will get on the stand and say they are a human smell expert on human decomp. Moo

Heck they both went to work and so did Simon Birch. Everyone acted as though there was no body. And rightfully so, there was no dead body. IMO

You were not there. You did not smell the car. Everyone who was there, and who smelled the car, says the same thing- it smells like human decomposition.
I suppose they could have said it smells 'like -- fill in the blank yourself- but they didn't- they recognized the smell of death, and you are in no position to dispute what they smelled.

 

[LambChop]

Both GA and CA know what human decomposition smells like. They know what rotten potatoes smell like and can tell the difference. Once you are exposed to decomp. you never forget that smell. Also police officers are considered expert witnesses when giving their testimony in court. JMO

 

[ZsaZsa]

GA spoke about his experience in the state depo. I believe that is the most extensive information we have. Sorry I can't link cause this computer I am on is stinky, but it is in the beginning of his depo with the the state, when he is going through his life's story.
He indicated he had smelled decomp (from crime scenes) when he first spoke with LE as well, stating that the smell in the Pontiac was the same smell from his LE days.

Yes he related that he had come across bodies in the woods and such, with that familiar smell. He recognized it instantly in KC's car and it concerned him greatly.

In this video he describes the unmistakable smell and also the basketball size stain in the trunk..
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE-jjDCkfXQ[/ame]

 

[Insomnia Momma]

That lingering smell of human decomposition was still very pungently present in the car more than two months later.

I would bet that the lingering smell is STILL pungently present today, getting close to 2 years later. It clings and never fully goes away.

I am a former paramedic, I know the smell. It's not something that you ever forget, hence GA praying it wasn't Casey or Caylee when he got within 3 feet of the car...

 

[ERRN1313]

OK, I am a lurker, not a poster, but I have to jump in here. I am a nurse, have been one as long as Cindy. I've smelled gangrenous limbs, maggot infested wounds, cancer ridden bodies, the smell of death. I sat with dying patients while doing Hospice work, made many trips to the morgue as a supervisor, and mainly spent 18 years in the ER. I've unzipped body bags, smelled the copper odor of blood and smelled brains oozing from a fresh gunshot to the head. Yet nothing smells like human decomposition.
Most nurses never do smell decomposition in a hospital setting as hospitals don't keep decomposing patients. Even when I worked in South Florida, we had a large number of unclaimed bodies I had to arrange indigent burials for. These bodies would be in the hospital morgue for a week or more. I had to physically sign them out to the mortician. They did not smell like decomposition since they were refridgerated. Nurses talk about the "smell of death" but it is a smell associated with the body shutting down, not decomposing.

My husband on the other hand has been in law enforcement over 35 years and has smelled plenty of decomp. In fact, if you talk about it he says he can smell it right then and his eyes will water.
I do believe George knew exactly what he smelled, but I agree with the poster who said he just didn't know who it was at the time.
I don't know if Cindy ever smelled it or not, but my point is just because she is a nurse, it doesn't mean she ever smelled it in her career. Nothing compares except for what it is.
Sorry if this post was graphic.

 

[Chiquita71]

Hello WS

George said human.

LE: Do you remember what you told me?
GA: I, I, I believe that there's something dead back there and I hate to say the word human. Uhm, I, I hate to say that.

CA: "Smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car."

:twocents:
After saying he "hates to say human", George goes on to describe his work in LE and the different places he encountered the smell of decomp and one of them is a car.

When Cindy called 911 she used the word: "body." A body is not a pizza.

I do not feel this is a "turn of phrase." She didn't say, "It smells like somebody died in here", she said it smelled like there had been a dead body in the car. Two different things IMHO.

Also the tense in this sentence refers to something that was no longer in the car but, had been in the damn car. Cindy couldn't have meant the "rotting pizza" because it was still there.

...JS...(just sleuthing)

 

[JustJax]

OK I will admit I have never smelled a dead body, but I have often said it smells like someone died in there.Most often when certain family members leave the bathroom. :innocent: It is a figure of speech. Like when i say I could have killed him, but I have actually never killed anyone.
KWIM?
Not saying this is the case, I am only responding to your question, why would she use that phrase if she had never smelled a dead body.

Knowing that Caylee has been "missing" for 31 days and then telling the 911 operator "There's something wrong, it smells like there has been and dead body in the damn car." tells me that she was not just using an expression.

 

[countzero]

Knowing that Caylee has been "missing" for 31 days and then telling the 911 operator "There's something wrong, it smells like there has been and dead body in the damn car." tells me that she was not just using an expression.

I am not a nurse, nor a doctor and don't play one on tv, BUT I do know the smell of decomp :sick: and if I was trying to relay what I was smelling was decomp that is exactly what I would say. Whether in a state of excitement or trying to get my point across.

CA was smart. The first two calls didn't get her the attention she wanted, so she knew the words "dead body" would. All part of the coverup imo.

 

[ZsaZsa]

Knowing that Caylee has been "missing" for 31 days and then telling the 911 operator "There's something wrong, it smells like there has been and dead body in the damn car." tells me that she was not just using an expression.

If it were just a 'figure of speech' as some propose it was certainly a very Freudian slip..

 

[Aedrys]

I am no expert, and thankfully have never smelled a decomposing body, but I have heard over and over again how bad of a smell it is. That it is unlike any other smell. To me, that says there is no other smell like it, or even near it, not even a way to fake it or make a synthesized version of it. I think if I ever smelled it, I would know it without having smelled it before because it's THAT BAD of a smell. No squirrel or pizza could ever come close to the same smell, and the only people who keep thinking otherwise obviously have never smelled it before. The closest I've come is molded rotted food, and since from what I have read it is far worse than that, I am glad I have yet to smell it.

I mean really, we're not talking about mixing up perfume scents, or even the heady smell of garbage. We're talking about HUMAN DECOMPOSITION. You won't find that smell bottled up for sale at your local store. The only way that smell is created is by a dead body decomposing. I have the sense enough to not question the foulest of odors on the planet. There was no mistake here by two people who have smelled decomp before, and I don't think they could possibly ever forget a smell like that.

One whiff of that trunk and the defense is sunk. IMO, with their experience, CA and GA definitely knew what they smelled and instantly went into coverup mode because of it.

 

[Zoe Bogart]

A nurse doesn't have to be around a body that is two or three days dead to know the smell of decomposition. I've smelled it on dying relatives a month or two before they actually died. Especially when dealing with the elderly, or someone who has a wasting disease, you can smell the decomposition taking place even before the actual death. Can't tell you how many times we bathed my mother trying to get that smell off her until a nurse said, "It's deep within". Then we knew. I've smelled it on others, too, including my elderly grandmother.

So if Cindy has any practical experience with the very ill, the elderly, and those wasting away from terrible disease, she would have smelled it, too.

 

[JBean]

Knowing that Caylee has been "missing" for 31 days and then telling the 911 operator "There's something wrong, it smells like there has been and dead body in the damn car." tells me that she was not just using an expression.

Like I said in my original post, I am not saying this is the case, I was responding to a specific question asking what other reason someone might say that.

 

[okiedokietoo]

Smells like indicates to me just that, smells like.

Like a tennis ball looks like a baseball but its not.

Like its an adipocere like substance, but its not adipocere.

The definitive way to put it is. The smell I smelled in the car today was the smell of a dead body.

Do the bodies that Ca smells, smell like a body that was in a trunk for 2.6 days and then taken out and then the car sat for 3 weeks?

When was the last time Ga smelled a body that had sat around. Or did he ever? Why is Ga challenging Ym about the smell of human decomp?

The funny thing is, is that there was no body in the trunk, nor any trace of a body in the trunk.

Imo they do not qualify as experts and neither does anyone else, at least I do not believe there is any police officer or expert that will get on the stand and say they are a human smell expert on human decomp. Moo

Heck they both went to work and so did Simon Birch. Everyone acted as though there was no body. And rightfully so, there was no dead body. IMO

I have a different take on this. Two different cadaver dogs from two different counties hit on the car and a cadaver dog handler testified in front of the grand jury. So in some circles, what cadaver dogs smell is respected. So, in the 911 call CA smells what smelled literally like what a dead body smells like.

 

[AZlawyer]

Smells like indicates to me just that, smells like.

Like a tennis ball looks like a baseball but its not.

Like its an adipocere like substance, but its not adipocere.

The definitive way to put it is. The smell I smelled in the car today was the smell of a dead body.

Do the bodies that Ca smells, smell like a body that was in a trunk for 2.6 days and then taken out and then the car sat for 3 weeks?

When was the last time Ga smelled a body that had sat around. Or did he ever? Why is Ga challenging Ym about the smell of human decomp?

The funny thing is, is that there was no body in the trunk, nor any trace of a body in the trunk.

Imo they do not qualify as experts and neither does anyone else, at least I do not believe there is any police officer or expert that will get on the stand and say they are a human smell expert on human decomp. Moo

Heck they both went to work and so did Simon Birch. Everyone acted as though there was no body. And rightfully so, there was no dead body. IMO

I won't get into the nuances of which people will be giving "expert" opinions and which will be giving "lay" opinions, and when "lay" opinions are OK, but I am 100% certain there will be people getting on the stand and testifying that they have smelled human decomp, that they are familiar with the smell of human decomp, and that the smell in the trunk was human decomp.

 

[BB12]

I have a different take on this. Two different cadaver dogs from two different counties hit on the car and a cadaver dog handler testified in front of the grand jury. So in some circles, what cadaver dogs smell is respected. So, in the 911 call CA smells what smelled literally like what a dead body smells like.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt2v6RfG9WI[/ame]

3 minute mark

Judge Strickland: "The relevant facts that are real real troubling are the deputies testimony about the canine cadaver dog that alerted on the car, and then again in the backyard. That will keep me up tonight. I have a real problem with that....."

 

[LancelotLink]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt2v6RfG9WI

3 minute mark

Judge Strickland: "The relevant facts that are real real troubling are the deputies testimony about the canine cadaver dog that alerted on the car, and then again in the backyard. That will keep me up tonight. I have a real problem with that....."

I just watched this the other day, and hearing Judge Stickland saying that sends a chill down my spine.
So, is CA hoping to be a paid expert witness?

 

[LancelotLink]

Knowing that Caylee has been "missing" for 31 days and then telling the 911 operator "There's something wrong, it smells like there has been and dead body in the damn car." tells me that she was not just using an expression.

You are so correct. There's something wrong, she said.
She blurted it all out in a rush as it began to dawn on her what that smell could have been.
After the bond testimony, she suddenly became a nurse of decomposition and an expert on empty pizza box decomp. Remember all the talk about how GA/CA felt each had thrown Casey under the bus?