25 Of The Weirdest Places Human Bodies Have Been Found

Posted by , Updated on December 14, 2023

If you think that corpses and human remains found in some of the most bizarre and improbable places is something you can only see in horror or crime stories, you are wrong. In fact, many of these movies have been inspired by actual events. From a body rolled up in a gym mat to a corpse stuck in a chimney, check out 25 of the most unusual places human bodies have been found.

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25

Set of CSI: New York

a person lying on the grounden.wikipedia.org

In 2006, things got scarily realistic during a filming of CSI: New York. Inside the building where production was underway, a building engineer found a mummified corpse. What makes this case even creepier is the fact that the episode actually involved a plot with a mummified body!

24

Set of CSI: Miami

en.wikipedia.org Miamimetroareaen.wikipedia.org

Shockingly enough, a few days after the mummified body was found at the set of CSI: New York, the set of CSI: Miami also became a real crime scene. While filming in the Bicentennial Park in Miami, Florida, the cast of the show were attempting to get aerial footage when the officer spotted a dead body floating just a few yards from the set’s location.

23

Elevator shaft

commons.wikimedia.org Second_elevator_shaft_at_Portercommons.wikimedia.org

In January 2009, an elevator shaft in an abandoned Detroit warehouse was host to a gruesome discovery: A body encased in ice with its legs exposed. Though the circumstances surrounding this death are unknown, it’s believed that the homeless person got stuck in the elevator shaft while trying to retrieve something.

22

Tiger shark stomach

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Although the odds of being killed and eaten by a shark are small, this possibility is indeed real. In 2010 a tiger shark was caught on a fishing expedition and prior to its release, it regurgitated a human foot.

21

Wooden gallery

en.wikipedia.org Papua_New_Guineanen.wikipedia.org

If you think having the ashes of deceased family members in an urn is kind of morbid, you probably haven´t heard of the Kuku-Kuku people in Papua New Guinea. If a member of the tribe dies, they stab the body to milk out its fluid, draw out its internal organs through the anal spigot and hold the corpse over a fire to suck out moisture and kill bacteria. Then, the preserved body is placed into a decorative wooden gallery.

20

A closet in a New York´s club

en.wikipedia.org Times_Square_1-2en.wikipedia.org

In 2008, security were shocked at what they discovered at New York’s Spotlight live club after Li’l Kim’s 33rd birthday party. Ingrid Rivera, a 24-year-old woman, was found dead in a rooftop utility closet. Rivera, who was thrown out of the party for being too drunk, was later beaten with a blunt object — possibly a champagne bottle — and left for dead.

19

Freezer

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Corpses hidden in freezers are common in horror movies. However, this hideous act sometimes occurs in a real life as well. In 2008, the corpses of three children were found in a woman´s freezer. Investigators discovered that the woman killed her children right after birth and kept their frozen bodies for 20 years.

18

Gym mat

en.wikipedia.org Mattressen.wikipedia.org

In January 2013, a 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson from Valdosta, Georgia, was found dead, rolled up inside a gym mat in South Georgia’s Lowndes County High School. The official investigation report says he suffocated after falling into the mat while trying to retrieve a sneaker. However, the boy´s parents are convinced that his classmates murdered Kendrick.

17

Teddy bear

commons.wikimedia.org Teddy_bearcommons.wikimedia.org

When Joshua Scott from Alabama bought a 5-dollar teddy bear at a thrift shop, he had no idea of the horror about to unfold. When he got home, he discovered an urn full of human ashes inside the bear. The family reported this crazy finding but so far, nobody has claimed the urn.

16

Mayan sacrificial pool

en.wikipedia.org Dzibilchaltun_cenoteen.wikipedia.org

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Yucatan, Mexico are the so called cenotes. You’ll be fine as long as you just swim in the pools, but whatever you do, never dive down. On the bottom, there are hundreds of skeletons of people sacrificed centuries ago to Chaak, the rain god of the Mayans.

15

Rooftop hotel water tank

commons.wikimedia.org Cecil_Hotel,_L.Acommons.wikimedia.org

When guests at the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, California, complained of low pressure and a strange taste in the water, they couldn’t have imagined the grisly source of the problem. Maintenance workers found the rooftop water tank clogged by Canadian tourist Eilsa Lam, who had apparently drowned inside.

14

Roots of a tree

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When Hurricane Sandy swept through Connecticut in 2012, it knocked down hundreds of trees and one of them revealed a morbid secret that had been hidden for centuries. Twisted within its roots, numerous human remains were found. Further investigation revealed that the area had been a burial site for Yellow Fever victims.

13

Haunted house

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Each Halloween, a family from Illinois turns a local house into a haunted house famous all over the neighborhood. But last year, the house got even scarier than the organizers intended. An unknown 71-year-old man died in the house and was left there for another 3 weeks until the visitors finally realized his body was not a prop.

 

12

Sofa

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When Bristol resident Alan Derrick let a homeless man, Denis Pring, crash on his couch, he didn´t have the foggiest idea of how his generous effort would end up. Pring, who has just finished a hearty drinking session, died on the sofa. Derrick, was reportedly “too scared” to tell anyone about the death, and just turned the sofa over and forgot about the dead man. Pring’s body was discovered inside the sofa after 10 years when Derrick moved out.

 

11

Padlocked gym bag

commons.wikimedia.org Do_Not_Cross,_Crime_Scenecommons.wikimedia.org

A naked, decomposing body of a British spy inside a padlocked gym bag is probably one of the most bizarre and disturbing discoveries that crime investigators have ever made. But what makes this case even creepier is the fact that the bag was found in the spy´s apartment and there has been no evidence of anybody else being involved in the tragedy, which gives rise to many theories and speculations about what really happened.

 

10

Mailbox

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A mailman in Pennsylvania was on his route when he found a strange package at the bottom of a mailbox. At first, the package, which had no address or stamps, was thought to be a bomb so authorities were brought in to investigate. After the bomb sniffing dogs gave the okay, they found a metal box with a weird label, inside the package. On the label there were years and names of individuals and in the box were the cremated ashes of these people.

 

9

Holy River Ganges

commons.wikimedia.org Ganges_river_at_Varanasi_2008commons.wikimedia.org

Every day, dead bodies of men, women, and even children are found washed up along the shores of India´s Ganges River. However local officials never suspect any crime, as it is believed that the dead were just given water burials. Many poor Indians cannot afford cremation so they just burry their deceased family members in the river. Unfortunately, this only contributes to the already heavy pollution of this Holy River.

 

8

Air conditioning

en.wikipedia.org Rooftop_Packaged_Unitsen.wikipedia.org

In October 2013, the body of a man who officials suspect might have been trying to break into a convenience store in North Carolina, was discovered inside the building’s air conditioning system. The corpse had already decomposed as the store had been closed for months so the body had been stuck in the duct for quite some time.

 

7

Place captured by Google Maps

en.wikipedia.org GoogleStreetViewCar_Subaru_Impreza_at_Google_Campusen.wikipedia.org

Obviously, railroad tracks are a very common location of deaths but what happened in Richmond, Virginia is quite unique. A crime scene with a corpse and investigators was accidentally captured by Google Maps and appeared on the internet. The incident was a murder of a 14-year-old boy who was killed near the tracks in 2009. When the family of the boy accidentally stumbled upon the traumatizing image four years later, Google promised to remove it.

 

6

Two different sewage plants

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If you are not sure about his one, let us explain it. In October 2013, body parts of a murdered woman showed up in two separate sewage plants in Los Angeles. First, workers who were checking a plugged line at the plant in Bassett discovered the head and upper half of the woman and just two days later, her legs, foot, and pelvis were found at another plant in Carson.

 

5

Fast food meals

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Now, It doesn’t have to be an entire body to qualify for this list, as there have been numerous reports of various human body parts being found in fast food. In May 2012, a Michigan boy found a finger in his sandwich at Arby´s. Following an investigation it was found that one of the restaurant employees had lost her finger in a meat slicing accident and it ended up in the kid´s meal.

4

Paper mill chimney

en.wikipedia.org PulpAndPaperMillen.wikipedia.org

In September 1987, a worker of the Georgia-Pacific West Inc. paper mill in Bellingham County, Washington discovered a skeleton lying on top of the pipes of one of the boilers. A forensic investigation determined that the victim may have been a Native American male but because of the extreme heat inside the chimney, all traces of DNA were destroyed, so the identity of the victim may never be known.

3

A high mountain ridge

en.wikipedia.org Tsubakurodake_from_Otenshodake_2002-8-22en.wikipedia.org

We know that finding dead bodies high in the mountains is nothing special or unusual unless it is a woman´s corpse with the skeletal remains of a baby inside. This is exactly what a hiker found in the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area in Arizona in 1995. The bizarreness of the case lies in the fact it would be too difficult for a fully pregnant woman to get to such an extreme place as well as it would be for someone to move her body there.

 

2

Metal keg

en.wikipedia.org Drum_(container)en.wikipedia.org

In the early 1990s, a gang of serial killers ran loose in the Czech Republic. They focused on rich businessmen whom they killed and stole their money and property. After the murder, they always placed the corpse in an iron keg filled with lye to destroy all DNA traces and then, they pushed the keg down to the bottom of a dam. The gang killed at least five people this way.

 

1

Shoe box

en.wikipedia.org Box.agren.wikipedia.org

In 1886, a large shoe box was discovered underneath some trees in a rural area outside of Wallingford, Connecticut. After the box was opened, a naked male torso was found inside. A month later, a local farmer found the missing arms and legs. Since the victim’s head was never found, his identity and the circumstances of his death, have remained a mystery.