Crime scene cleaner explains what death really smells like

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and imagery of death that some readers may find upsetting

Death continues to be shrouded in mystery and questions, and while we'll never know for certain what awaits us when we take our final breath, there are some people out there who are confronted with it every day, including being faced with what it smells like.

Many people deal with death day in and day out for a living, and quite naturally, they have become somewhat desensitised to it over the years and have accepted it as a normal part of life.

And one of those people is specialist biohazard crime scene cleaner Ben Giles, who has had 30 years of experience in doing what he does.

Giles, from West Wales in the UK, got into his craft after working as a window cleaner and over the years, he has pretty much seen it all - from helping dispose of a dead fin whale that had been hit by the bow of a ship, to cleaning up a hoarded house filled with '20-30 tonnes' of waste and human faeces.

He has, of course, also dealt with his fair share of gruesome crime scenes - something he recently opened up about while appearing on LADbible TV's Honesty Box series.

Giles was asked the age-old question that has plagued the minds of many: What does death smell like?

"It depends on how the person has died," Giles explained.

Giles previously worked as a window cleaner (LADbible Originals)

"If we are dealing with blood, this strong smell of iron, it's the decomposition. It's just that strong smell of kind of rotting flesh and body fluid that you're hit with on every single scene.

"More often than not, there's this kind of musty, damp smell as well. But yeah, it's kind of pretty similar."

He later elaborated on how the size of the deceased can affect the smell, saying: "The body fat that you have... that malodor, is pretty horrendous. But you only get that obviously from a person who has got a lot of fat on them.

"I've been to scenes where there's been little old granny who's died, she weighs four, maybe six stone, there's nothing off her. So no fat, therefore the fallout is just really minimal."

Giles was also asked about the worst type of body fluid to deal with, in which he confirmed it was 'without a doubt' decomposition.

Giles said the worst kind of body fluid to clean is decomposition, which can be seen here (Ben Giles/Supplied)

'It's something that stays with you most of your life'

Speaking of cleaning up after a body has been decomposing, Giles said: "So if you get to a scene where something's happened very recently, then obviously body fluid is pretty easy to clean up.

"The longer it's there, so in a decomposition it just gets worse and worse."

He elaborated: "If you've seen pictures, you see a very, very dark black kind of a gunk on those surfaces. And that is normally the body fat that is broken down.

"It's mixed with acids from the stomach, various other body fluids, but the smell from that is absolutely horrendous.

Watch Giles' full Honest Box episode below:

"It's something that stays with you most of your life. That's probably the worst thing to clean up."

Giles went on to give an example of one of the more harrowing clean-ups, recalling the smell that came from a man who'd died in the attic.

"We had a gentleman that passed away in the loft... he was a big chap, and the fallout from that was his body fluid had run all the way down to the ground floor, followed light switches, electrical cables, water pipes, and where it hit copper pipes that were hot central heating pipes.

"It started to kind of bake, and then you had this kind of horrendous smell in the property."

Giles is also called out to hoarding jobs (Ben Giles/Supplied)

The process of human decomposition

Human decomposition is how the body breaks down after death, and many factors affect the speed of decomposition. But regardless of these factors, decomposition always occurs in the same order and follows five specific stages, as outlined by Trauma Services:

• Fresh Stage (Days one to two) - The first stage is called autolysis, which means self-digestion. This stage begins immediately after death when blood and oxygen stop circulating throughout the body, and livor mortis - the settling of blood in the lower portions of a body - begins.
• Bloat stage (Days two to six) - As enzymes and bacteria break down tissues, gases form and build up in the body, causing the bloat stage, which can see the body double in size.
• Active decay stage (Days five to 11) - During active decay, soft tissues break down and the body releases fluids. As the body’s soft tissues start to decay, the organs, muscles, and skin liquefy.
• Advanced decay stage (Days 10 to 25) - Bones, dried tissues, and residual fluids are all that’s left after most of the body mass has broken down. The rate of decay slows, and this advanced decay stage can last for several weeks.
• Skeletonization (Weeks to years) - This process marks the end of active decay. Whatever parts of the body are left at this point collapse and dry out. There’s also typically a complete breakdown of soft tissues, which sees the nails and teeth fall out.

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