From personal experience of caretaking for a parent who died at home (cancer, under hospice care), there was a distinct smell within a couple of hours. (We had to wait about an hour for the hospice nurse to arrive to certify the death, then wait another hour or so by the time the funeral home people arrived to pick up my parent.)
And, I could smell that odor for many months afterward, almost a year (even though the bed and bedding had been removed from the house).
So, just from personal experience, I would think someone could notice a lingering odor of death even if a body had been there for only a couple of hours.
Just imo.
I am sure you know your experience.
But studies using actual mechanical detectors for decomp, vs. human sense of smell vs. canine detection all show different results. Some humans have very good senses of smell (mine is entirely average - as of course, is true of most people).
The chemistry of decomp is very well known. There are hand held detectors for the chemicals (each has a known chemical structure). There are *other* odors associated with death than just decomp (which, IIRC, consists of 2 main biochemicals and 4 others). There are odors associated with particular cancers. So, since you only have the one experience, you can't know for certain that it was decomp you smelled. It could have been early death byproducts.
Decomp is a very well studied process. In some conditions, people with an excellent sense of smell can smell it in 24 hours. That's unusual. The charts that one other poster and myself have been discussing are for AVERAGES over many, many instances of decomp. This is what the forensic literature says.
Heat and humidity (and presence of certain bacteria and insects) can speed it up. So, in this case, we know it was hot (but not humid). We do not know whether LE also noticed, say, insects inside the mobile home. We don't know whether the responding officer was a super smeller.
But I'm here to tell you that it's exceeding rare for cadaverine and putrescine to be sensed by any average human before 24 hours (but a mobile home with the door closed and windows closed and no A/C/ would be different - someone left the door open...probably to air it out?)
Responding officers noticed it on August 1. Most LE have experience of smelling cadaverine and putrescine. I got mine in anatomy lab (nothing could cover it up - even though the bodies we were dissecting were thoroughly soaked in formaldehyde - which, btw, is another substance that is quite strong to smell - and ALSO present at most deaths, along with Methanethiol - which is not the complete "decomp" smell."
So unless each of us has experience with actual decaying bodies, it's hard to say that we each know what decomp smells like. Death comes with many smells, but decomp is specific (IMO).
The average time at which these decomp chemicals are first sensed by humans is 24-48 hours but, if the death is more out of doors or the weather is cold and dry - 72 hours).
The responding officers smelled it. On August 1. Presumably, since the door was open, it had time to dissipate. But when did someone die in that mobile home??? If it had been a rodent caught in a trap, I do believe LE would have mentioned it. They apparently found no source for the smell.
Which indicates that someone died, started decomposing (so their body was there at a minimum of 12 hours - but more likely 24 hours - as it was hot, maybe longer). There is no body to autopsy, as it is impossible for JFR to have died in his mobile home AND to have driven his truck. Of course, someone could have killed him, left him in the mobile home, and then transported his body (with his truck) via Thermal and Julian, over the next 2 days. But the body had to have been in the trailer for at least 24 hours for the smell to still remain on August 1, IMO.
IME.
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And, if I was a guest for free at a friend’s place, I’d want to pitch in and help wash dishes, etc., so I didn’t think a whole lot about the fact that she was cleaning.
