#010 CAUSE OF DEATH - Smell of the death

podcast_19594_todesursache_the_pdcst_with_marcell_engel_episode_295690_010_causeofdeath_the_smell_of_death-1.mp3

#010 Cause of Death: Smell of the deathThe podcast with Marcell Engler.

#010 Cause of Death: A sweetish smell disturbs Mrs. Müller's coffee party. Marcell Engel looks around the pensioner's apartment. And finds the solution to the mystery in the attic... Crime scene cleaner Marcell Engel tells of his probably most unsavory experience.

#010 Cause of Death: Cause of Death. The podcast with Marcell Engler.

#010 Cause of Death: My name is Marcell Engler and I work as a crime scene cleaner.It will happen every now and then in my podcast that we dive very deeply into what is happening. I will talk about it openly. By that I mean that liquids, such as, blood as an element will be the smallest problem. I am looking forward to taking you on a mind trip into my world as a crime scene cleaner. 

Cause of Death is one of the successful true crime scene podcasts in Germany and my experiences can be listened to here now:

Cause of Death is one of the successful true crime scene podcasts in Germany and my experiences can be listened to here now: Cause of death. The podcast with Marcell Engel.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of my podcast Cause of Death. This is your Marcell, the crime scene cleaner. Glad to have you back today. Today I brought a story which is about not delaying decisions too long, and making decisions at the right time. It's often the case that you just drag things out a bit and play a mind game like that: I do, I don't. And that's what today is all about. I had a job in northern Germany with a customer. It was a chic little house with a brick facade, so typical Nordic, up in Hamburg. Sensational! I really like it. And yes, I came on site and the customer had actually called because she had a massive odor issue. And she had already explained to me on the phone that she couldn't really define this odor problem. But you could tell she was somehow extremely uncomfortable about it. Then I drove on-site and I rang the doorbell at the house and the house had four floors. I had to go all the way up. And on the fourth floor, a lady welcomed me. The lady was 87 years old at the time, in great shape, and she invited me in. And, as I said, it was a very chic little house. And then she told me that she was the owner of this property and that her husband had left it to her. Then she told me a bit about her life. She had a groomed appearance. So, that's an important point in the story, because once I entered the house, she already started to justify the strong smell and assured me that it wasn’t her fault because she was a very clean and hygienic women. I then said: Well Ms. Müller, you don't need to justify yourself for the smell here. That can have different causes. And well, she then told me she has a cleaning lady and you could notice. So, it was really neatly tidied up in her house. She asked me into the living room and I followed her. And she told me intensely about the problems and the development on her own, without me having to ask much. But I still wanted to question points that were important to me. The smell that I could recognize in the apartment was not so specific, as I usually know it from a crime scene or the discovery of a corpse. It was a mixture of a sweet and yet very distinctive spice-like smell. And I didn’t draw conclusions to a crime scene or finding a corpse. So, I told her: Well, you know, Mrs. Müller, it is often the case that such smells present a completely different problem. For example, an animal could have died in the attic above. Or a window could have been open and a pigeon may have flown in and died here. Or a marten has settled into the house.

And well, I tried to pull the plug a little bit, because she was extremely embarrassed and you could really notice it. In the course of the conversation, she got really red in the face and she asked me to come to the coffee table in the corner. There she had a very, very cute six-person coffee table with about 6 seats and there was also a rug, a thick one with fringes on it. Everything is very neat and tidy. And then she also said: Oh, it doesn't matter if you step on a fringe there. That'll put my cleaning lady in line again. And then I said: Ok, everything is great. Then she told me: But somehow, sometimes, when I've been walking around the apartment recently, my feet are cracking, you know, as if you were stepping on popcorn. So, I said: Okay, that might allow conclusions to be drawn about fly infestation, maybe larvae and pupation. But I didn't see anything. As I said, it was neat and clean and accordingly I didn't even get involved with it.

And while we were talking, she told me that she usually celebrated board game evenings with her friends for years, twice a week, and that she has no longer been celebrating it for weeks. And in the past, it has always been so unpleasant, because the tenants were still allowed to use the attic. Now she has forbidden them to use it and they are only allowed to use the basement and storage rooms to the individual apartments. It was always so loud and the children were always screaming upstairs. Well, first of all there was a lot of input, a lot of information, and then I told her and suggested: Watch out, it's best if I take a look up in the attic. If you want, you can come with me and we'll see how it's constructed and then we'll look for the source of the odor. No sooner said than done. She then got the key and we went up the stairs to the floor above her apartment. And when we arrived in front of this door, which was a really solid, massive wooden door like an apartment entrance door, with a normal cylinder lock, I tried to unlock this door with the key she gave me. But that didn't work. This key didn't go all the way in. I have repeatedly made emergency openings for customers in the past and over the years, especially if there were any suspicions. Well, I think I will have participated in around 300 to 400 actually confirmed corpse finds, mainly on the basis that the authorities had called me often and I then opened these apartment doors when there were suspicions about the death. Yes, but as I said, in that case it was also the problem that the door wouldn't open at all and I then suggested to her that I had tools with me, I'd go down and get them and then I'd break open the cylinder there so that we could get in. She agreed to that, because we wanted to solve the problem. And without analysis and finding the source of the problem, of course, it's not possible. After I got back upstairs and got the tools, I went straight to the door and really focused on it. I was still thinking about it back then: well, how does this attic look? Let's see, how have I otherwise always proceeded. I imagined myself in the story to my professional experience to find the source of this cause. And at that moment I cracked open this cylinder with a metal pipe and said to myself: I'm going to go in and have a look. And she told me that she would wait outside the door and that I could let her know.

And while we were talking, she told me that she usually celebrated board game evenings with her friends for years, twice a week, and that she has no longer been celebrating it for weeks. And in the past, it has always been so unpleasant, because the tenants were still allowed to use the attic. Now she has forbidden them to use it and they are only allowed to use the basement and storage rooms to the individual apartments. It was always so loud and the children were always screaming upstairs. Well, first of all there was a lot of input, a lot of information, and then I told her and suggested: Cause of Death. The podcast. The crime scene.

And while we were talking, she told me that she usually celebrated board game evenings with her friends for years, twice a week, and that she has no longer been celebrating it for weeks. And in the past, it has always been so unpleasant, because the tenants were still allowed to use the attic. Now she has forbidden them to use it and they are only allowed to use the basement and storage rooms to the individual apartments. It was always so loud and the children were always screaming upstairs. Well, first of all there was a lot of input, a lot of information, and then I told her and suggested: I opened the door slowly, I remember it opened to the outside of the hallway, and I looked and stuck my head in a crack on the floor. I saw a light glow from above through the roof window. I saw a shine on the floor. It was an old, untreated wooden floor and I saw that it was somehow quite dusty and somehow there was a film of liquid in this light. It had a strange shine, so yellowish. But at first, I couldn't do much with it based on what I already knew and was so focused on.

I then saw small wooden sheds on the left and right in this middle aisle, which were also open and then small curtain locks that were still attached to it and they were hinged locks, which were partly open. And then I thought to myself: oh, the attic is not even developed here. So, you could still see the brick work from the roof tiles. And I thought that somewhere in such a shed maybe some animal is sitting and has its nest there or has pooped in there or whatever. And then I looked up and I got frightened: there was a corpse hanging on the roof beam.

I then saw small wooden sheds on the left and right in this middle aisle, which were also open and then small curtain locks that were still attached to it and they were hinged locks, which were partly open. And then I thought to myself: Cause of Death. The podcast. The victim.

I suddenly had goosebumps. At first, I took a step back and said: Wait a minute, Ms. Müller. First, I reset myself and thought: am I seeing right? Because I didn't expect that at all. Then I met a surge of my familiar smell, namely at the moment when this stagnant air in this attic had exchanged itself with the hallway. That's when I smelled it. And then it really stunk. Unbelievable. And this corpse, it was also really creepy, because it was hanging there and the facial expression of the corpse, I will never forget it. The face seemed emaciated. And I would draw a comparison, for God's sake, I don't want to discredit this man in any way, but he almost looked a bit like Mick Jagger. His cheekbones were sunken in, but the rest of the body was extremely swollen up, black, raven black. One eye was more or less hanging out and the corpse was naked. So, he was hanging there naked, like God created him. And I was really not only extremely frightened at that moment, but also somehow disgusted. As I said, I've seen a corpse quite often, but at this moment I was disturbed. And maybe it was because I was so extremely focused in a different scenario and had actually imagined something completely different. Because the smell of the corpse was hardly noticeable at first and only spread when I opened the door. And yes, this decomposition process, which was already far advanced, this liquid of the corpse, which was really extremely distributed on this attic floor, also had a different color than usual. That was also very unusual for me and the corpse was not hanging. I must say, I have often seen, a corpse on a rope or on some kind of textile, but never on a leather belt or on two that were tied together. And that hung around the neck. You could really see how this belt was cut into the skin fold of the head and had already partially removed the flesh and tissue. Wow, I thought to myself, now first of all stay calm. I first had to think briefly about what I'm going to do now. What do I say to Mrs. Müller? And then I spoke to Mrs. Müller, and of course I exited the door first and said: We have a problem here. So, there is a corpse that has caused the odor problem. She stuttered: That, that can't be. It can't be! There's nobody left with the key. It has not been used for months or even longer.

And she was quite perplexed. And at that moment she spoke to me and looked past me by about two meters. That was also quite strange and tricky at that moment, because I thought, what is she doing now? Not that she will have a stroke or something. So, it was really very, very strange. The situation was extremely odd and I then spoke to her again and said, "Watch out, we have to stay calm now. We'll go downstairs and call the police now, the emergency doctor must be notified, who will determine the death. Then a funeral home comes. They will pick up the body and we now have to go through these individual steps. I'll do all that for you. But first, stay calm. Then she spoke to me again: We'll have to do it that way then. And of course, she was extremely excited. But she didn't look at me again when I spoke to her. I didn't think anything of it and then said: Okay, all right, we'll wait downstairs. We were then in the apartment downstairs and I spoke to her again: Ms. Müller, is everything okay with you, because you're not looking at me directly? Yeah, I'm just very excited. And by answering that again, she looks past me again. Then she said: Yes, you know, I, I, I, I can't see anything anymore.

And she was quite perplexed. And at that moment she spoke to me and looked past me by about two meters. That was also quite strange and tricky at that moment, because I thought, what is she doing now? Not that she will have a stroke or something. So, it was really very, very strange. The situation was extremely odd and I then spoke to her again and said, "Watch out, we have to stay calm now. We'll go downstairs and call the police now, the emergency doctor must be notified, who will determine the death. Then a funeral home comes. They will pick up the body and we now have to go through these individual steps. I'll do all that for you. But first, stay calm. Then she spoke to me again: So, she had an extreme visual impairment and she took out a pair of glasses from her drawer. I've never seen anything like it. The glass was really like bulletproof glass. They had an estimated thickness of 5 centimeters, these glasses. When she put the glasses on, the glasses sank deep into her flesh with this attachment on her nose. That also looked extremely strange. Then I saw, I hadn't noticed before, that she had lots of tactile aids on her wardrobe. Sticks, like elongated white ones. They must have been there to help her find her way in public spaces, to practically signal her way out, and so on. That was completely new to me but explained the situation. I went with her to the living room afterwards and then told her how we will proceed. Then I called the police and did all the necessary calls and then discussed with her the further procedure. I explained to her that now probably first of all the natural cause of death will be determined. I explained to her the whole process and the whole procedure and at that moment I saw a dark brown ring on the ceiling.

It was a water stain; you could really see that. Then I said: For God's sake, there's - and I didn't really notice that before, I mean well, the discoloration wasn't extreme, it was brown, but it was such a very light brown, she had a lot of mocha colors and brown tones in the apartment anyway. So I didn't notice that at first. And yes, I spoke to her again and she said: "Yes, my friends haven't been coming to our board game evenings for a very, very long time, because it's just extremely embarrassing for me. They think afterwards that it's me who smells like this. And that, as I said, was all extremely embarrassing for her. Then she told me, "Yes, you know, Mr. Engel, you really have to be careful. So, she was worried to get a bad reputation. We then agreed for this appointment to be held at a later date. And then that day came and we had the assignment from her to solve the overall unified problem up there. I also told her; we may have to reclaim areas. If wood is heavily contaminated, that is, soaked through with the corpse fluid, then you can hardly get it done, or sometimes not at all.

It was a water stain; you could really see that. Then I said: And then you just have to look at how to dismantle certain things in terms of building physics. Yes, and at the same time we were commissioned by her because I told her that the liquid may then have moved into one or the other area to clear this entire attic. And in the course of this clearance, a shed was noticed that was suspended by such black felt blankets. So, from the inside someone nailed such felt blankets against it. And when we opened it, I thought I couldn't see properly. So, there was a real sadism porn corner built up. There was a monitor, a huge amount of porn DVDs lying on the floor and there was various equipment from leather whip to a rubber ball, which the man, what do I know, then gets stuffed in the mouth or whatever. And there were also several photographs that hung there with Dominas on it. The photograph shows a Domina, and someone who then kneels in front of her and makes and does and so on. And on one photo, I thought I wasn't seeing right. I recognized the facial features of the corpse. You could see it clearly. Of course, he looked completely different. Alive. But you could clearly see that these haggard facial features were part of the corpse who hung himself. So of course, I immediately made-up pictures in my mind.

It was a water stain; you could really see that. Then I said: Cause of Death.

So, I thought to myself: Oh, my goodness! So, a) Do I tell Mrs. Müller? and b) does the CID know that? My thought was: did he possibly die during a sadistic sex game and such a species reduction by strangulation? Was the whole thing a sex accident? It could be anything. So, I mean, maybe you don't have to find clarity now, but of course it's the question: is it maybe relevant for the investigation? I then also called the CID officer and he told me: We have recorded all this, Mr. Engel. All good. We assume and ‐I didn't know that, I had no contact with him before ‐ that the suicide was not a suicide case, but actually in all probability a sex accident. Wow, I thought to myself. Okay, all right. So, the order was completely processed. The assignment was really a lot of work. And we were really busy for a long time until late in the evening, clearing out this attic, these hovels, and on the other hand then properly removing the traces of the corpse. And as we were in the final stages, I decided perhaps not to tell Ms. Müller the whole truth. I would simply like to be able to give myself satisfaction in the form that one does not unnecessarily burden people who perhaps do not necessarily have the understanding for it. Our Mrs. Müller was well over 80 and I thought to myself: okay, no matter what she herself has experienced in life and no matter what her position is to such sexual practices, I thought: okay, we'd better leave it alone. I'll just tell her part of the story. So, when I finished the job downstairs after we were done, I told Mrs. Müller: So, in all likelihood, I don't know if you already know from the police, an ex-tenant of yours died up there. And then she said: Yes, I know that. The police officer has already told me that. And he also told me that it could be, that the whole thing might have been an accident. And well, then somehow the situation cleared up for me. Children who play. Yes, you don't normally hear them on the fourth floor when they're playing down in the street. That was probably a different game, namely in that little attic room, in this shack upstairs from her neighbor, who, I know, followed his sex drive there with all regularity. Anyway, I don't know. Well, that's up to each of us. I don't want to judge or condemn at all. But something did come up in the situation. Ms. Müller went back and said: "Oh, you know, I'm so glad that this is over. I can finally celebrate my board game evening with my friends again. And it has always been the case in the last few weeks that I have sat here anyway with my coffee, I didn’t let it be taken from me. And it was always kind of weird. Well, this smell always hit my taste mucous membranes. I was still thinking: well, it didn't smell that bad. She told me before that it was always well aired, because in her opinion it smelled too extreme, like the smell of rot. And yes, then I asked her: Tell me, as always, you were sitting at the table? Because I mean, if the smell is there, then it must be permanently deposited on the mucous membranes. Yes, what can I say? Then I looked at the top of the stain again and saw that there were drip marks on the stain. Drip marks with such a small nose on it. So, you could really see that liquid must really have dripped down from the ceiling. And then I looked at this drop and said: Tell me, did you always sit right here? It was right under this drop. Then she said: Yes, I did. Then I thought: uiuiui. Well, I also never told Mrs. Müller this story afterwards, that the corpse fluid of her deceased tenant probably dripped onto her plate and, in the worst case, into her coffee. I thought to myself, she didn't get sick and maybe she shouldn't find out about it in her old age, after she really had to endure a really hard number in general.

So, I thought to myself: What the living learns from the dead.

Yes, and so my learning from that and the life impact that that had left on me was that Mrs. Mueller delayed her decision to call a professional for one reason. She was uncomfortable with what other people would think about her. She was uncomfortable coming out to a stranger with her problem, which could have been associated with her. Yes, so it wasn't an outing at all, because she wasn't the one who caused it. Quite the opposite. And it occurred to me again that perhaps we all often delay certain decisions ourselves. Whether it is a commission or other things are not so relevant. But that we sometimes think back and forth for too long: is it right or is it wrong? Or even not make decisions because we might think that others might think negatively about us. And I have to say, this energy, to worry about what others think about you, you can forget it. Because people who love you, they understand you and they like you the way you are. And if they don't, they'll at least overlook the little flaws that each of us has. And everyone else, you just can't care about them, because if someone thinks badly about you and that just leads to a blockage in a life decision, that's wasted energy. Yes, that was "The Body in the Attic." Thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you so much for joining me again for this episode. I would be extremely happy if you tune in next time for the next episode of my podcast Cause of Death. In this sense: have a wonderful day. Until then, yours Marcell.

Yes, and so my learning from that and the life impact that that had left on me was that Mrs. Mueller delayed her decision to call a professional for one reason. She was uncomfortable with what other people would think about her. She was uncomfortable coming out to a stranger with her problem, which could have been associated with her. Yes, so it wasn't an outing at all, because she wasn't the one who caused it. Quite the opposite. And it occurred to me again that perhaps we all often delay certain decisions ourselves. Whether it is a commission or other things are not so relevant. But that we sometimes think back and forth for too long: That's it for the new episode of Cause of Death. The podcast with Marcell Engel, head of his own special unit and crime scene cleaner at more than 12000 locations around the world. What can Marcell clean-up for you? Anytime. Worldwide. Get in touch or just click through to www.MarcellEngel.com. Empathic. Profound. Honest. Cause of death is guaranteed to leave you cold.

Yes, and so my learning from that and the life impact that that had left on me was that Mrs. Mueller delayed her decision to call a professional for one reason. She was uncomfortable with what other people would think about her. She was uncomfortable coming out to a stranger with her problem, which could have been associated with her. Yes, so it wasn't an outing at all, because she wasn't the one who caused it. Quite the opposite. And it occurred to me again that perhaps we all often delay certain decisions ourselves. Whether it is a commission or other things are not so relevant. But that we sometimes think back and forth for too long: Join us! I'm excited.

Yes, and so my learning from that and the life impact that that had left on me was that Mrs. Mueller delayed her decision to call a professional for one reason. She was uncomfortable with what other people would think about her. She was uncomfortable coming out to a stranger with her problem, which could have been associated with her. Yes, so it wasn't an outing at all, because she wasn't the one who caused it. Quite the opposite. And it occurred to me again that perhaps we all often delay certain decisions ourselves. Whether it is a commission or other things are not so relevant. But that we sometimes think back and forth for too long: Subscribe to the season and you won't be late for an episode.