Has Anyone Ever Found a Body

[+Goldenwattle]

I have never found a human body while geocaching, despite sometimes heading to caches in thick bush, off trails (if fact some areas have no trails). If someone died in those remote areas and no-one knew they went there, they would only be discovered by chance and likely years later. Hence I NEVER cache alone in those areas. A small group is best.

 

I did though find someone's hidden stash of fresh fruit and vegetables in a polystyrene box under leaves. It was near a cache and I unearthed it in my search for the cache. It was also just before a fruit and vegetable quarantine border, where they might be searched and the produce confiscated. Obviously they needed to go through the border, but planned to return soon after and collect their purchases.

[+JoLTeam]

Actually, friends of ours found a dead body at GZ of one of our caches. The cache is on a trail which isn't used much (in an otherwise urban area) and a guy hung himself on the tree where our cache is hidden. The guy was dead for almost a week when he was found... Needless to say, our friends were - and still are - a bit traumatized. They actually thought, upon arriving, that the guy was logging the cache, as he was "leaning" against the tree...

 

[+TeamRabbitRun]

2 hours ago, JoLTeam said:

Actually, friends of ours found a dead body at GZ of one of our caches. The cache is on a trail which isn't used much (in an otherwise urban area) and a guy hung himself on the tree where our cache is hidden. The guy was dead for almost a week when he was found... Needless to say, our friends were - and still are - a bit traumatized. They actually thought, upon arriving, that the guy was logging the cache, as he was "leaning" against the tree...

 

 

PLEASE post a link to that log. Not out of any salacious intent, but out of real interest. I'd seriously like to know how they dealt with it and how, if at all, they chose to share the experience.

 

Yes, I could go through your hides, but I'm asking, in case you don't want this discussed further. Personally, I think it's very much on-topic for this thread.

[+cerberus1]

Spend most time in the woods, so figured sooner-or-later that's bound to happen.  Not yet thankfully.  

 A few counties here have seen a few instances of "found a body" by outdoors folks. 

Now it seems to be folks wandering off and succumbing to the elements, and we still see people miles away with no water.

When I was a rookie, and the only thing around the poconos was resorts and  a whole lotta woods, well ... some ended up here.

 

[+JoLTeam]

18 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

PLEASE post a link to that log. Not out of any salacious intent, but out of real interest. I'd seriously like to know how they dealt with it and how, if at all, they chose to share the experience.

 

Yes, I could go through your hides, but I'm asking, in case you don't want this discussed further. Personally, I think it's very much on-topic for this thread.

 

Well, they chose to not mention anything in their log. They just chose to share the experiency orally.

And I just disabled the cache for a month, and afterwards reactivated the cache.

The guy's family erected a small memorial at the tree, and that memorial is mentioned several times in the logs afterwards.

[+hzoi]

This old multi near us was unavailable for a while this summer due to a murder investigation.  I saw memorials on the fence when I parked and didn't connect it until the owner told me to watch out for crime scene tape and holes.

 

The case has been in and out of German headlines since then, as the head of the German federal police has been investigated on kidnapping charges -- the murder suspect was picked up in Kurdistan and returned to Germany without going through formal extradition.

[+NanCycle]

Last Sunday a body was found near one of my caches.  News said it was found by residents walking along the highway, so it was probably closer to the highway than to the cache itself.

[+ecanderson]

Didn't spot that one in the news, Nan, since we don't get much Pueblo area news up here.  Where was it? 

 

I found a 'body' at the periphery of a visitor's lay-by just outside of Estes Park a few years back (GCQ6Q0).  OK, it wasn't a body per se, it was cremains in a very nice engraved brass box that gave the name of the deceased and a few particulars, including that person's love of the Estes Park area.  Silly place for someone to leave the box since this is high muggle territory during tourist season, but ...

 

A geocache had been hidden nearby, and in our search, we were the first to uncover the box under some large rocks within about 5' of the cache.  We suggested to the CO that the cache should be moved so as to prevent other cachers from making the same discovery, and to keep muggles from checking out the area.  Thankfully, the CO complied, having no previous idea that there was an issue, and gave the cache a 230+ foot shove.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by ecanderson

[+NanCycle]

12 hours ago, ecanderson said:

Didn't spot that one in the news, Nan, since we don't get much Pueblo area news up here.  Where was it? 

Not  Pueblo news per se.  Woman from Aurora found between Trinidad and Walsenburg. 

[+papu66]

I know it's old question but yes, this happened to me once. It was bit of a shock and put me off caching for some time.

 

I was heading toward a cache and decided to shortcut through a small urban forest. It was suspiciously empty of caches and I went in to see if I can't BF a cache there, because there is a lot of mystery caches in that area. I noticed someone standing by a group of small trees reaching up. I naturally thought that's another cacher, so I made little noise to no response. As I approached I noticed yikes, that's a body and it's not a hand going up that tree.

 

I don't know what would have happened if I didn't go there. The closest cache (the one I was heading to) was couple hundred meters away so probably not many go in that isolated patch of woods and have a look around. The body could have been gone for weeks until found. It was wintertime. 

 

Strangest thing was, I went to this skeleton cache right after this. It had lots of FP's but I was not amused. Luckily, I knew what to expect so I didn't freak up.

 

 

[+coman123]

When I first started caching, I did not make myself really familiar with the rules before starting out.

I thought the talk of buried treasures would be fun and exciting, boy was I wrong.

Get to my very first GZ, could not find anything, so back to the truck, grab my shovel and I start digging (not knowing any better)

Ended up digging up human remains... Called police..bla..bla..bla...

 

Long story short, I did DNF the cache and I'm no longer allowed back at that cemetery. LOL

 

 

 

[+Dave_W6DPS]

I have found a cash register broken open and reported it to the police.

[+GCTV]

Not whilst Geocaching but I smelled a body many years ago. It was about a week later it was discovered to be a dead body. 

 

---------------------------------------------

Love Geocaching? http://geocacher.tv

[+SamLowrey]

On 1/14/2019 at 10:22 AM, coman123 said:

When I first started caching, I did not make myself really familiar with the rules before starting out.

I thought the talk of buried treasures would be fun and exciting, boy was I wrong.

Get to my very first GZ, could not find anything, so back to the truck, grab my shovel and I start digging (not knowing any better)

Ended up digging up human remains... Called police..bla..bla..bla...

 

Long story short, I did DNF the cache and I'm no longer allowed back at that cemetery. LOL

 

 

 

One of the funnier geojokes I've read (I hope it is a joke.) 

[+Bundyrumandcoke]

Not when caching, but I have been involved in the search for, and retrieval of, quite a few dead bodies as part of a volunteer emergency group. Its the ones that have been in the water for an extended period of time that are usually the worst. We used to have a stretcher frame fitted with chicken wire, to strain them when getting them out of the water. If you grabbed an arm or a leg, it usually came off in your hands. I was allocated the head end of a body once, that had been ejected out of a piece of heavy machinery as it went over the side of a cliff. When we went to pick him up, my hands disappeared into the back of his skull, he had lost the back of his skull, and we didn't realise it. One really bad car accident I was involved in had parts of human scattered over a very wide area, skull and brain fragments thrown at least 300 metres from the site of impact. Nasty stuff. 

[fendmar]

Some time ago while caching in the Katy, Tx area with a geobuddy, we found a little kid (maybe 2 or 3 yo) in his pj's running alone down the street in forty degree weather. He was just as happy as could be. After a little coaxing he was able to point out his house and we knocked on the door to have the presumed mother quickly snatch the kid up and take him inside without much of a thank you. Does that count as a body?

[+SamLowrey]

One time I thought I might see a body.  I lived about an hour away from the Sam Houston National Forest.  I was going out there for a spate and it so happened to be the summer months so I strived to get out there pretty early before the heat.  For those who don't know the forest is pretty large but it doesn't attract many visitors.  A lot of trails but it isn't that exciting, I guess.  Anyway, it is the type of forest where there are often spider webs (or at least strands of them) across the path so you pretty much know you are the first one to trek there  that day if you are encountering them.  So, JUST as I'm starting out at one of the many little-used trailheads I'm going through occasional spider webs at around 8 AM on a weekend and I encounter a curious sight about 200 feet in.  Right by the trail is a neatly-folded track-suit with a pair of running shoes also neatly placed on top of them.  I can tell they haven't been there long using cues like lack of dew, etc... Needless to say I debated on just turning around right then but I had invested some time and effort and I had a goal of a cache or two to get.  I reluctantly pressed on.  I had a knife ready and I was on edge to encounter some naked maniac.  Fortunately that didn't happen.  Whoever it was must have hiked to that location from the other direction, I guess.  I don't know if he was perhaps wanting to traipse around the woods au naturel  or maybe a suicide or what.  Never found out.  But I sure was spooked more than just about any other time in my life.

Edited February 17, 2019 by SamLowrey

[+Oxford Stone]

Not humans but the occasional deer / rabbit carcass in different stages of decay.

Gathering the numbers for https://coord.info/GC149B5 took a while, and my son who was about 4 at the time and getting bored, danced on Agatha Christie's grave... hard to explain to a small kid that that is NOT the done thing...

[+TeamRabbitRun]

13 hours ago, Oxford Stone said:

Not humans but the occasional deer / rabbit carcass in different stages of decay.

Gathering the numbers for https://coord.info/GC149B5 took a while, and my son who was about 4 at the time and getting bored, danced on Agatha Christie's grave... hard to explain to a small kid that that is NOT the done thing...

 

Well, it's not a 'body story', but Oxford Stone's account puts me in mind of the time when my college roommate, my young son (he was about four) and I were wandering through the cemetery at the West Point Military Academy, not too far from where I live. For those of you who are not Americans, please look it up. ("West Point", not "where I live".)

 

Many famous military graves, historic figures all.

 

After a while, we looked behind us and we saw that young Taylor, the adventures of whom I have written about in many cache logs, was carrying two small American flags and a handful of pennies.

 

"Where did you get that stuff?"

 

Circuitously, he led us back to a VERY tall monolithic grave marker. It's common here for people to leave coins on gravestones to mark their visit.

 

Yes, my son had robbed General George Custer's grave.

Edited February 20, 2019 by TeamRabbitRun

[+IceColdUK]

14 hours ago, Oxford Stone said:

... my son who was about 4 at the time and getting bored, danced on Agatha Christie's grave... hard to explain to a small kid that that is NOT the done thing...

 

It’s positively encouraged here: https://coord.info/GC4YX5G :-)

[+Oxford Stone]

Robbing Custer's grave - brilliant!

also buried in Oxfordshire: Winston Churchill, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, John Buchan (39 Steps), Jerome K Jerome (Three Men In A Boat), George Orwell... many of these used in multi caches.

 

[+CheekyBrit]

Undertaker here,

My job is to retrieve bodies, typically inside buildings, but you get the occasional outdoor venue for someone's last moments (crashes, lost in woods...). I haven't stumbled upon a body while geocaching, but I have been geocaching and suddenly had a death call in the area and had to nip off. That's probably not what you were after.

[+HunterandSamuel]

One time we kayaked across a river to find a cache on the other side. I don't think I'll do that again as it's in the news at least three times a year about bodies being found. The water level was low due to a draught and we could see the bottom while kayaking. It was a bit unsettling. 

[+CheekyBrit]

5 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

It's in the news at least three times a year about bodies being found.

Near me is American Falls reservoir, built in the 70s. The now flooded valley used to be part of the town, including a cemetery. Thanks to decomposition, there are gaseous byproducts that occasionally cause bodies to float out of their graves. This doesn't happen too often and the closest geocaches are around the edge of the reservoir, but people swim, fish, pleasure boat, and water ski in that reservoir all the time. I've considered placing a scuba cache there but the cemetery makes me hesitant.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

28 minutes ago, CheekyBrit said:

Near me is American Falls reservoir, built in the 70s. The now flooded valley used to be part of the town, including a cemetery. Thanks to decomposition, there are gaseous byproducts that occasionally cause bodies to float out of their graves. This doesn't happen too often and the closest geocaches are around the edge of the reservoir, but people swim, fish, pleasure boat, and water ski in that reservoir all the time. I've considered placing a scuba cache there but the cemetery makes me hesitant.

 

Scuba diving in a cemetery sounds creepy.   I would imagine that there are a fair number of towns that once existed where large reservoirs now exist.  I used to live fairly close to a reservoir in the SF bay area called Lexington.  It covers an area where two small towns used to be located (Lexington and Alma).   I don't know if either town every had a cemetery.  

 

These former towns where reservoirs have been built are known as "drowned towns" or "flooded towns" and, as it turns out, the Catskills region in New York (where I own a house) has a lot of them, many located where reservoirs which provide drinking water for New York City now exist.

 

In any case,  placing a cache where a town use to exist seems to be very much in the spirit of what attracts many to the game.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

2 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

Scuba diving in a cemetery sounds creepy.   I would imagine that there are a fair number of towns that once existed where large reservoirs now exist.  I used to live fairly close to a reservoir in the SF bay area called Lexington.  It covers an area where two small towns used to be located (Lexington and Alma).   I don't know if either town every had a cemetery.  

 

These former towns where reservoirs have been built are known as "drowned towns" or "flooded towns" and, as it turns out, the Catskills region in New York (where I own a house) has a lot of them, many located where reservoirs which provide drinking water for New York City now exist.

 

In any case,  placing a cache where a town use to exist seems to be very much in the spirit of what attracts many to the game.

 

Ah, yes; the Ashokan Reservoir; my neck of the woods. In some VERY droughty years, the buildings in the drowned towns of Shokan, West Hurley, Brown's Station and nine others peek up above the surface. VERY creepy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/14/nyregion/watery-graves-was-no-figure-speech-receding-city-reservoir-reveals-turbulent.html

[+HunterandSamuel]

16 hours ago, CheekyBrit said:

Near me is American Falls reservoir, built in the 70s. The now flooded valley used to be part of the town, including a cemetery. Thanks to decomposition, there are gaseous byproducts that occasionally cause bodies to float out of their graves. This doesn't happen too often and the closest geocaches are around the edge of the reservoir, but people swim, fish, pleasure boat, and water ski in that reservoir all the time. I've considered placing a scuba cache there but the cemetery makes me hesitant.

 

Yikes! But if you decide to, a great diving container is the MTM survivor dry box. lol I can see your description now: "When scuba diving for this cache please be aware that at one time this reservoir was a cemetery. Be respectful."

[+HunterandSamuel]

13 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

and, as it turns out, the Catskills region in New York (where I own a house) has a lot of them, many located where reservoirs which provide drinking water for New York City now exist.

 

This is good to know. I wonder if this is why my New York City friends to not drink water from the sink tap. I'll have to ask them. It would seem that the water coming from a place where cemeteries are under water, would be contaminated. 

[+HunterandSamuel]

Reading the old posts in this thread has me not want to geocache in remote out of the way areas! Yikes!  I hope I never discover a deceased person. Luckily I always geocache with someone, I wouldn't be able to handle it alone. 

[+The Jester]

5 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

This is good to know. I wonder if this is why my New York City friends to not drink water from the sink tap. I'll have to ask them. It would seem that the water coming from a place where cemeteries are under water, would be contaminated. 

No worse than any watershed where animals live, poop, die and decompose into the water.  Most cemeteries that are planned to be flooded are moved to 'dry ground' before the dam goes in.  I'd really be surprised if any (known) ones were left alone.

 

Off topic somewhat related fact:  The term "Graveyard Shift" started in Seattle when the Denny Re-grade was happening.  The city was moving the original graveyard that would have been buried.  People were getting upset (some very upset) that their departed loved ones were being disturbed, so they started doing the moves at night when everyone was asleep.  Workers started saying they were working the graveyard shift (night shift) and the term stuck.

 

[+HunterandSamuel]

14 minutes ago, The Jester said:

 

 

Love the off but really on-topic! 

[+Zekester & Simon]

I have found cremains while searching for a cache in Nevada, and a body adjacent to a night cache in Florida.  In the case of the body, it was another cacher who had fainted in fright due to the way the night cache was set up. 

[+Seeker_Knight]

On 5/4/2015 at 10:49 AM, PlantAKiss said:

I was wondering about this on Saturday as I ended up in a spot in the GZ area where a body could easily have been dumped and probably never found. It comes to mind because I did find a dead man in the woods once. I wasn't actually caching at the time but was exploring off-trail along the edge of the small park where all my caches are located. While the body wasn't terribly far from one of my caches, it wasn't where anyone would normally be. A policeman said if I hadn't come across him, he would probably never have been found. (Which would have been really sad. ) Since that time, when I'm out either exploring or caching in isolated areas, I kinda keep my eyes peeled since I now know coming across a body is not out of the realm of possibility. Cacher are so out-and-about in random areas I would think perhaps someone else has had this experience.

 

It does happen in some remote areas. I used to work for Baltimore County Rec and Parks in Maryland many years ago. I was assigned the Double Rock Park duty, which required me to report directly to the maintenance office in the basement of the main rear pavilion in the 111 acre park in the middle of suburbia. It was a desolate location, even though it was merely a few hundred feet away from a regular neighborhood. When we go there, we were the ones to unlock the entrance gates and swing them open, so nobody had been in the park with a vehicle yet.

One day I got there, and on the covered patio above our little office, I saw what I thought was a stuffed dummy hanging from the roof rafters. I figured the kids had been in there the night before and thought it would be a good prank. Upon getting out of the truck and walking a bit closer, I realized it was a real body. Some poor kid had chosen that as the place to end his life. How tragic, creepy and UN-nerving! The police were called, and the coroner came. It is something I will never forget, and I still get a weird feeling if I go into that park even now!

Seeker_Knight

[+Rustynails]

I once found a live body while caching the countryside south of the cities I live. Here's a copy of my log.

 

As we were going down the dirt road we spotted a elderly gentleman standing on the road. He didn't look well so we turned around to check on him. We asked him if he was okay but he didn't respond very well. We then asked where his car was parked and he replied down the road. We got him in the van to find his car. I asked him where he lived and he replied, on a hill. It was obvious he had dementia. He said his car was white. We couldn't find a white car but noticed someone mowing grass. We pulled in the farm to see if they know him. Nope, no idea who he his. I decided to get the man to show me his identification. He had a identification card and his name was Lloyd and we now had his address. We put the address in the gps and it was a 1 1/2 miles away.

 

We get to Lloyd's house and knocked on the door. After a while Lloyd's wife answers the door. We tell her about finding Lloyd and she gets real pissed off. She yells, why did you bring him back. You should have left him there. He does this all the time. She was doing some canning and didn't want to be interrupted. She did calm down and we had a short chat. The white car we were searching for only existed in Lloyd's mind. You never know what you might find geocaching.

 

Having some caching fun with the Two of Hearts team. Our main goal today were MnSQ multi's. Lots of history learned today visiting these cemetery's. TFTC

[+ecanderson]

[+LizzyRN]

As a child I found two bodies, one when I was 5 and the other I was 16. Both drowning victims and neither while geocaching. 

[+TeamRabbitRun]

13 hours ago, LizzyRN said:

As a child I found two bodies, one when I was 5 and the other I was 16. Both drowning victims and neither while geocaching. 

 

 

uhhh, ...better luck NEXT time?