If you follow my instagram, you already know what happened a week ago.
In an apartment complex a body was found in the back of a car.
No, it wasn't a bad part of town either.
It was a small town with relatively no crime (other than the occasional speed demon).
This was no ordinary apartment complex though.
It is mine.
And it was no stranger to me who called it in to the police.
It was me.
I will start at the beginning of the story.
This has nothing to do with what I did.
It is more to do with what I didn't do.
What we all didn't do.
It started about a month ago.
The snow and freezing temperatures finally started coming to an end here.
Things were as they normally were.
We would go grocery shopping as a family.
When we came back we never paid any attention to what cars were and weren't there.
Why should we?
What do we have to fear?
Dead people in cars next to us?
Never..
Until I noticed a small odor.
Nothing unusual for me, a girl who grew up in the country.
I was used to dead possum, skunk, fox, etc to die in our backyard.
I was the kid who found them and run to mommy wanting to bury them.
So, seeing as there was a sewer near the place we parked that day I thought a rational thing.
Something must have crawled up in there and died.
Why would I think any different.
I was in a safe part of town.
Nothing weird happened here.
It was a normal smell.
At least to me.
About a week went by when the smell started getting stronger.
I chalked it up to being pregnant.
I could smell mcdonalds french fries a block away (literally),
it wasn't unusual for things to smell stronger than they really did to me.
I did start looking around on my way to the car to see if I could see the poor animal though.
That was the extent of my concern.
Again, your brain trys to rationalize it.
Another week went by.
I started noting things in the parking lot.
I wasn't in the parking lot much but I did notice a white car was right near the smell and the sewer.
I couldn't rule the sewer out at this point.
For all I knew the poor animal was stuck somewhere, decaying.
I had no clue.
But I had started keeping tabs on the white car.
Everytime I went out I looked to see if it was still there.
It always was.
I never saw anyone go near it.
At this point I started mentioning it to family.
I told my mom and dad when they were over that I thought it was the car.
They told me I was probably overreacting, it couldn't smell as bad as I described.
They told me it was probably a dead animal somewhere nearby.
Again, I let myself believe it and let it go.
That night when my mom left, on her way to her car, she went near the car to see what I had been talking about.
(She didn't tell me she had until I mentioned the smell again a few days later)
She said she smelled it too.
She thought that someone had gone hunting illegally or hit an endangered species and hid it in their car so they could bury it without getting in trouble.
She told me if I was really concerned to talk to my cousin who I'm close to who is a police officer in another town.
I texted him that night and he responded a few minutes later saying I should talk to the apartment manager.
If nothing is done there, to call 911 and tell them there is an odor around a car.
When my husband went to pay our rent he told the manager.
I'm not sure why, maybe he had a long day, but he was snippy with Bryce saying
"Fine. I guess I'll get to it when I can."
Another week went by.
The odor continued to grow stronger.
I continued to note things, waiting to hear from the manager.
The car still never moved.
By that point I was leaning more towards the car than the sewer.
It just all seemed very suspicious.
About a week went by and we woke up early to go out for breakfast.
The day before it was in the 90s.
That day it would reach over 100 degrees.
When we got back home we ended up with a parking spot a spot away from the white car.
We both looked at the car before we got out.
Knowing full well the smell that would hit us as soon as we opened the door.
Bryce got out and got Kaiden.
I sat in the passenger seat for a minute and looked at the car.
I didn't have my contacts in as I rarely do
(they bother my eyes)
but I could swear I saw a bunch of dots around the car.
I focused for a moment and realized they were flies!
I could not deny it anymore.
I could not keep telling myself it was the sewer.
I could not keep denying it when it was right in front of me.
I pointed it out to Bryce.
I think that was his wake up call too.
We went inside and I put Kaiden down for a nap and asked Bryce to call 911.
The lady asked for the cars license plate number and Bryce went outside to see.
She then asked for his contact info.
About an hour later we got a call back.
It was an officer asking Bryce to come outside.
I thought, "How strange? Is this normal procedure?"
When he came back in he looked worried.
I immediately asked what was going on.
Did they find something?
He said they had the whole place taped off,
a lot of police where there,
and news reporters where there.
I went outside to check the mail.
Mostly because I wanted to see what was going on.
Sure enough, what Bryce said was true.
They were dusting for fingerprints on the car.
They found something.
What, I still didn't know.
Eventually we got interviewed by a very kind man.
He was a homicide detective.
He recorded our talk.
At the end I asked if there was anything he could tell us.
Did they find anything?
His words:
"I don't want you to be alarmed, but we found a body. We think we know who it belongs to but we can't be certain."
He also said they thought it was a suicide if it was the man they thought it was.
He told us that generally people go through shock when something like this happens and if we ever felt like that to give him a call.
He left and we were interviewed by several reporters for the newspaper and local news stations.
They have just recently found who the body belonged to, though I will not openly announce a name or any other information out of respect.
Now to the reason I am telling you this.
I live in a complex with over 1,000 inhabitants.
Nobody. Noticed. This.
In every report and every person I have talked to who lives here they all say they never noticed or smelled anything.
How can I be the only one?
I wasn't.
As the homicide detective put it, we tend to rationalize things and hide them in our brain.
The people here did smell something.
They did know something was going on as long as I did.
They still did nothing.
They even pretended they had no clue.
Made themselves forget.
He said this is a common thing.
BUT WHY!?!?!
Shouldn't we all care about our fellow human beings.
I say this now, but was I not guilty of the same thing?
You read my story.
I took me one month.
ONE WHOLE MONTH
to call police!
I can make a million excuses but I won't.
It's no use.
I let a fellow human being rot in a car because I didn't call sooner.
The detective told me I couldn't have saved him.
By the time I noticed something he would have been dead a while.
But still.
I let someone sit there, for a whole month, while I tried to make myself believe it was nothing.
If I hadn't said anything, he would have been there longer.
But wait.
Before we start pointing fingers at us, realize how many are pointing back at yourself.
How do you know you would have done any different?
How can you honestly say that?
Do you call the police every time you smell something funny?
Do you?
If the answer is no then you are no better.
We all are guilty of trying to rationalize things.
It's how we have become.
We try to block out the bad.
We have so much of it in our world we try so hard to believe nothing like that could ever happen where you are.
This is our downfall.
We must realize that regardless of where you live,
regardless of how different you think you would act,
that this can happen to you.
I am writing this now to show you the many mistakes I made
in hopes that if you are faced with a similar situation,
wherever you may be,
don't hesitate to call.
I made that mistake and I live with the regret.
I don't want you to feel the same.
