I Smell Dead People: Premiere Edition

Today being Friday the 13th, it seems a fitting day to launch First Nerve’s periodic update on those macabre instances in which a smell leads to the discovery of a decaying corpse.

The squeamish and the irony-impaired should immediately click away, preferably to some bright, safe, happy place where it always smells like sunshine and fresh laundry. The rest of you Uncle Fester types can pull your shirts up over your noses and follow me down the dank, dark path to the place where the smelly setup varies but the grim punch line remains the same.

A classic scenario occurred in Oklahoma City this week. The manager of an apartment building was checking out complaints of a “foul odor” coming from one of the units at 801 East Drive. Inside he found the body of a 64-year-old man. According to police, trauma to the body suggests foul play.

In Las Vegas, in late January, a landlord summoned police to a rental home at South Rancho Drive and West Sahara Avenue. Once inside, the officer followed a “bad smell” to a closet in which a dead body was hidden. The man had been shot. What happened next was unexpected: the officer was approached by one Perry Danley, who admitted that he had shot the victim in “roommate dispute.” Danley is now facing charges of murder with a deadly weapon.

Here’s one from the “in plain view” category. In mid-January, a worker at a rest stop on I-95 near Jacksonville, Florida, noticed a “foul odor” coming from a car in which a man and woman had been sleeping on reclined seats. He called State Troopers who found that the pair—a couple traveling from Kentucky—were in fact dead, and had been so for several days. Carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected.

And finally, the Orange County Register reports on the murder trial of Bahram Nazeri of Irvine, California, which was set to begin this week. He is accused of stabbing to death his wife and mother-in-law back in 2006. According to reporter Sean Emery:

Authorities believe Nazeri tried to hide the bodies in the
downstairs bathroom, telling his 6 and 8-year-old daughters
that their mother had gone on a business trip, and that they
shouldn’t open the bathroom door.

Prosecutors say Nazeri tried to cover the smell during the
next few days by continually filling the bathtub with ice. But a
visitor to the house on Aug. 22 reportedly became suspicious
when they noticed a foul odor, as well as what they described
as Nazeri’s odd behavior, and contacted Irvine police.

So long until next time!

UPDATE February 17, 2009  Suspect arrested in Oklahoma City case.

UPDATE February 25, 2009 Nazeri GUILTY.