Juicy

This is not blood! It is decomp juice!

“Decomp juice” is what we call the fluid that can leak from a body during decomposition. As tissues begin to break down, cells rupture, and organs start to liquefy. At the same time, bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract spread through the body and produce gases and additional breakdown products. The combination of liquefied tissue, blood, digestive fluids, and bacterial byproducts can eventually seep from the mouth, nose, rectum, or through areas where the skin has begun to break down.

When a body dies in a house, this fluid can seep into the bedding, couch, floors, etc., surrounding the body, which makes it especially challenging to get the dead body smell out, even after the dead body is removed. In enclosed spaces, the combination of decomposition gases and fluids can make the smell especially intense.

The smell is usually described as extremely strong, sweet, rotten, and putrid- or as I like to say pee, poop, rotten fish, and flowers! Much of the odor comes from bacterial decomposition of proteins, which produces chemicals such as putrescine and cadaverine, along with sulfur-containing compounds that can smell like rotten eggs, feces, or decaying meat.

The color can vary quite a bit. Early decomposition fluid may be reddish-brown or dark brown because it contains degraded blood. As decomposition progresses, it can become very dark brown, blackish, green-brown, or sometimes yellow-brown.

Have you ever seen (or smelled) a decomposing body?