Illegal disposal of bodies in the water

Illegal disposal of bodies in the water happens for various reasons, including the main difference between a burial at sea and a burial on land: the difficulty in exhuming the body. Sometimes this difference is desired to dispose of bodies outside of the law.

Disposal of evidence

There may be a number of reasons for this kind of crime. One common reason for this behavior is to dispose of the evidence. The body may be the victim of a homicide, as for example murder or manslaughter. In some cases, the victim may even be still alive and drown during the process. A live victim is usually restrained to reduce the likelihood of the victim freeing themselves or fighting back, and the body is often weighted to ensure the sinking of the body. The mafia is infamous for disposing of victims in oceans or lakes with their feet cast in a concrete block. Other variants tie concrete blocks or other heavy objects to the victim. The "Chicago-style" method involves wrapping heavy chains around the victim. In Venice, barrels filled with a human body and concrete are occasionally found in the canals. It is difficult to determine if murder victims buried in a swamp are buried in water or in earth. Often, the body is also cut up to reduce the likelihood of reappearing.

In other cases, the victim may have died from an accident, and another involved party tries to destroy evidence of the accident. There are also cases where a stillborn infant is buried to dispose of evidence of infidelity, or problems with fertility.

Problems

While a corpse properly buried at sea is unlikely to reappear, many criminals are unable to ensure the permanent disposals of a body, and evidence of the body may reappear. This is rarely as spectacular as the freshly caught shark in the Sydney Coogee Aquarium that vomited up a surgically separated human arm, leading to a murder investigation. The victim was determined to be James Smith, but the three murder suspects were acquitted.

Many criminals dispose of bodies in a river, hoping that the body is carried away. However, this method will most likely lead to a quick detection of the body, because the body gets entangled at the side of the river, or stopped at a dam, or is simply seen floating by others. A disposal in large lakes or oceans is more likely to hide the body, but a decomposing body can develop a strong positive buoyancy due to the decomposing gases being trapped underneath the skin. This may bring the body up to the surface, or at least increase the movement across the ocean floor due to wave actions. Many bodies have washed up at the shore. Bodies have also been discovered in the nets or lines of fishermen, and occasionally, bodies are also discovered by divers.

Very cold water with little oxygen may even preserve bodies, allowing for an easier identification, as for example Margaret Hogg, the "Wasdale Lady in the Lake" in Wast Water lake in the Wasdale area (see National Trust Properties in England). She was found after 8 years, with her body preserved like wax.

Cases

* Gary Ridgway (born 1949), the Green River Killer, disposed most of his bodies in or near the Green River
* In the Shark Arm Case James Smith's murder was discovered when a shark in the Sydney Coogee Aquarium vomited up his severed arm in 1935
* Anne Marie Fahey, scheduling secretary for then Delaware Governor Thomas Carper, was killed by prominent Delaware attorney Thomas Capano and was dumped, inside of a large "Igloo" cooler, into the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast with the help of his brother, Jerry. Only the cooler was recovered and was buried by the Fahey family after the Capano case.
* Emmett Till, his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi in 1955
* Margaret Hogg, the "Wasdale Lady in the Lake", murdered 1976, and found 1984
* Laci Peterson, the wife of Scott Peterson, murdered 2002 and found on the shore of the San Francisco Bay.

ee also

*Sea burial