Random Dead Bodies Discovered in Public: 13 Strange Stories (13 items)

(#13) Body Of Teenage Boy Found In Chimney

Joshua Maddox was reported missing by his mother in 2008. Seven years later, a demolition crew found the remains of the Colorado boy's body stuck in the chimney of a cabin that belonged to his parents. Officials identified Maddox from his dental records, but couldn't immediately determine what ended his life. They didn't find any signs of physical injury or gunshot wounds, which means Joshua might have simply gotten stuck in the chimney while trying to shimmy down into the house.
(#6) Perished Man Found Inside Car, Ticketed Seven Times

According to the neighborhood parking enforcement officials, the issue wouldn't even have been flagged in the system for another full week after the seventh ticket was placed on the man's car, had the man not been discovered as perished and not sleeping.

John Waldo was reported missing nearly two weeks before the first ticket was issued, and the toxicology reports that will determine Waldo's cause of death will take a month and a half to process.
(#5) Woman Found Passed In Her Cubicle, A Day Later

When Rebecca Wells, an auditor for the Department of Internal Services, was found passed at her cubicle in an office building, it wasn't because her co-workers noticed her and immediately called the paramedics. She had been no longer living for over 24 hours when she was found, hunched over at her desk.

She normally worked in East Los Angeles, but was conducting an audit in the Downey area. Her body went unnoticed for a day; she was working on the second floor of the office building in a row of cubicles where no other workers were stationed. She was found by a security guard on Saturday, February 12, 2011, and was last seen alive the previous day at 5 p.m. after a staff meeting.
(#9) Person Found In Elevator Shaft Frozen In Ice

According to a multiple reports, it took three calls to Detroit authorities and over two days before they recovered the body of a man frozen in ice in the elevator shaft of a vacant warehouse.

A Detroit News reporter working from an anonymous tip found the body, and it was eventually removed from the ground with a saw.

Investigators estimate the body was frozen in the ground for months; no word on how the man came to be trapped in the elevator shaft in the first place. It's a mystery. The cause of death were also under investigation, with no leads in sight at the time.
(#1) Woman Starves In Broken Elevator

A woman's body was discovered in an elevator in Xi’an, China after she apparently starved until she was no longer alive. Workers found the body, which had been trapped in the elevator for more than a month, when they returned to work at the building after the Chinese New Year. They were supposed to have checked the elevators before taking them out of service before the holiday, but authorities said the workers neglected to perform a visual inspection.

When they finally did discover the poor woman, they noticed that her hands were mangled from repeated attempts to escape.
(#4) Canadian Tourist Found Floating In Water Tank Of Downtown Los Angeles Hotel

Canadian tourist and University of British Columbia student Elisa Lam was found floating in one of four water cisterns situated on top of the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. This was not a situation of her falling in one night and being found the next day; Lam was left decomposing in the tank — which provided water for bathing and drinking to the residents of the hotel — for as many as 19 days.
Patrons of the budget hotel had reported that water pressure was almost non-existent and that the water coming from the taps had an off taste to it, but it was over two weeks before anyone from the maintenance staff of the building investigated the cause of the issues.