Reporting a "body" to authorities

[memberofthewedding]

You are out in a remote place and you come across what appears to be a dead person. Do you:-

#1 call the police and await their arrival or leave full contact details

#2 call police later from phone box or burner phone. You are concerned that someone may be awaiting news of the dead person but dont want to get personally involved with police/courts/witness statements/media frenzy

#3 walk away and let someone else find it - for similar reasons to #2

And yes, burner phone?

This happened to my parents when they were on holiday, they did option one... there was no media frenzy but they were given a special mug as a thank you from a local. Now known as the dead-body-mug and my dad won't drink from it.

1

Well unless you murdered them or something it's 1

Well, 1 for me personally. But in a murder case, as a PP pointed out, they may need to eliminate you from enquiries by your movements, footprints, and may need to do that the following day etc. There may be some people who don't want to explain why they need to pop to the police station on a Saturday morning when they're supposed to be doing something with the kids they can't get out of, or have officers round, maybe in a scenario where their partner thinks they were in the office, not finding bodies in the car park of a Travelodge with their colleague Barbara.

I read a lot of true crime, and I believe I have read about cases where things that happen in gay cruising areas are harder to solve because a lot of witnesses value their privacy.

I must be weird because i was pondering this myself when walking in the woods recently. There was a plastic bag near the path which from a distance looked like it could have been a body. I would be terrified to go near or check if they were alive, especially if there was injuries, blood etc. I'd be scared if i phoned police or ambulance they would tell me to check for a pulse or wait with the body etc. But i would want to get help ASAP in case the person was still alive or in case an attacker was nearby and could be apprehended.

I’d probably do no 1 to make sure no children came near.

However I’d understand 2. I tried to report a man been abusive to a woman in the street and the police caller was more interested in my details than what was going on. It was really frustrating! I didn’t want to be a part of it at all, no idea who they are, never going to see them again. Just wanted to get the police over to check things!

1 unless I had some kind of delusional paranoia issues?!?

I don’t get how this is an ethical dilemma?!?

Number 1. The chances are there won't be a media frenzy. The vast majority of people who are found dead in remote places won't be due to suspicious circumstances. If it was suspicious it would look dodgy if you're calling from a burner phone or anonymously in other ways. Number 3 is just pretty rubbish.

1 of course.

Because I live in the real world, not in a film.

1. You've been watching too much tele - your only involvement would be a quick statement to say when/how you found it. Nobody would suspect you of any more involvement than that, or be asking for interviews.

We made lifelong family friends with a couple from overseas when they dredged up a body in the canal with their holiday narrow boat.

1. I’d think it strange if you didn’t report and wait.

1. I'm not becoming a suspect.

My brother found a dead body in a London park
He didn’t actually realise it was dead at the time, he called an ambulance but they were already dead

That was the end of the involvement for him. He wasn’t required to go to the inquest or court trial, he had to follow the outcome in the papers
The press weren’t even slightly interested in contacting him!

This actually happened to a friend of mine

He rang the police straight away

A body washed up on the beach near where I live several years ago, and a friend spotted her walking my dog in the early hours. She didn't get too close, rang the police who came down, took a statement and her details then said she ought to go, but gave her a number to call if she needed support. Newspapers reported it being a suicide, very sad but friend didn't feel any suspicion arising from her "involvement" and no one contacted her at any point, media weren't interested.

#1.

That being said, a couple of years ago, a family member of mine came across a dead body in the road (without going into the utterly appalling details, this person was unquestionably dead and it was quite clearly the result of a RTA, rather than the body having been 'dumped' there iykwim). It was the middle of the night. There was somebody else already stopped and using their mobile phone - presumably calling the emergency services/police.

My family member drove the short distance home in shock and then called the police themselves to report themselves as an additional witness.

They arrived to take a statement, and then arrested my family member on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving - a hit and run. Their car was confiscated to be forensically examined, as well as their computer and mobile phone. They were held almost 24 hours.

My family member was quite quickly proven innocent, thankfully, but for them and for us as a family (the first we heard of it being that they were being held in a cell, with the news reporting that a person of their age and description had been arrested on suspicion of killing somebody) it was a truly horrendous experience.

So yeah - things can go wrong even when you are trying to do the right thing, but still, #1.

1. Though if they're not obviously dead it'd be ambulance.

2 just makes you look like a suspect.

But I would fully understand anyone choosing 3. Not everyone feels the police will treat them right - and that's mostly the police's fault.

#1. As PP have said, mostly the media report it as “found by a dog Walker” or something and aren’t interested in anything further.

In my view, the exact way to whip up a media frenzy would be by giving them something juicy like “mystery person who went to lengths to disguise identity before reporting”. Also agree that I wouldn’t want to waste police time (or even become a suspect) if they need to eliminate my DNA/footprints etc from the crime scene.

@safariboot you make a really good point actually. As a white British middle class person I have a lot of privilege in that I automatically class emergency services as “here to help me”. Appreciate not all people are that lucky.

No Ive never found a body but I do know of a couple who did so, but under very different circumstances. They kept quiet about it.

A burner phone - you can get one in Argos or another supermarket for about £10, pay cash and put an unregistered sim in it. Nothing difficult about that.

I’d do 1 of course. It’s what any normal, , decent person would do.

I know what a burner phone is. Your not cooler or cleverer than the rest of us. I'm just questioning why your average person needs a burnner phone. Answer, they don't.