#013 CAUSE OF DEATH - The flowerpot

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#013 Cause of Death: The flowerpotSometimes we have such a gut feeling.

#013 Cause of Death: In this episode, Marcell Engel is called to some kind of senior citizens' residence. A not untypical place for a corpse discovery. But what the crime scene cleaner finds there is something he has never experienced before. A curious death, which could also perhaps have been prevented. If someone had listened to his gut feeling...

#013 Cause of Death: Cause of Death. The podcast with crime scene cleaner Marcell Engel. 

#013 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 heard here now:

Cause of Death is one of the successful true crime scene podcasts in Germany and my experiences can be heard 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 Marcell, your crime scene cleaner, and I'm very happy to have you back today. Today's topic is about the seventh sense, gut feeling. Sometimes things just feel weird. There are situations that arise perhaps in a relationship or amongst acquaintances or simply by a situation. Yes, even when someone says or explains something and somehow you have a funny feeling about it. It feels different than usual. And there are different ways of dealing with something like that. You can react to it or, of course, you can suppress it or push it aside and just say to yourself: well, it won't be so bad, will it? Well, maybe it's not like that at all. And one simply reduces the intensity of it a bit. Yes, exactly, but to such a gut feeling I have experienced a curious crime scene cleaning story. Some time ago, I was assigned to do a job. And as always, I tried to clarify over the phone all the incidents on site as best as possible for me, simply to better position the scope of services that awaits me there. And accordingly, it's always an arc that we work through. And in this case, unfortunately, it was once again the case that I couldn't get that much information because they couldn't or didn't want to give me any information.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of my podcast Cause of Death. This is Marcell, your crime scene cleaner, and I'm very happy to have you back today. Today's topic is about the seventh sense, gut feeling. Sometimes things just feel weird. There are situations that arise perhaps in a relationship or amongst acquaintances or simply by a situation. Yes, even when someone says or explains something and somehow you have a funny feeling about it. It feels different than usual. And there are different ways of dealing with something like that. You can react to it or, of course, you can suppress it or push it aside and just say to yourself: I was called to an age-appropriate residential home. And for anyone who is not familiar with this, I don't mean typical old people's homes as you might think of them, but it's actually like living in different levels of care. So, people live or rent or buy into such a property and can then live in a normal apartment. That's one of the variants, and it goes all the way to actually needing the right level of care. And then it can also be that you end up in a patient room. And all this can be bought step by step according to necessity. And I was called to such a facility. I had just been told that it was a discovery of a body and that the body had probably been there in a room for several days to weeks. Well, that's not unusual in principle. I then drove to the place, which was in a large city. And as I drove off this two-lane main road on a beautiful summer's day, I crossed the sidewalk and came to a beautiful forecourt, and the entire building actually looked more like a really nice luxury hotel. It was five-stories and had on the first floor, a complete glass facade all around.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of my podcast Cause of Death. This is Marcell, your crime scene cleaner, and I'm very happy to have you back today. Today's topic is about the seventh sense, gut feeling. Sometimes things just feel weird. There are situations that arise perhaps in a relationship or amongst acquaintances or simply by a situation. Yes, even when someone says or explains something and somehow you have a funny feeling about it. It feels different than usual. And there are different ways of dealing with something like that. You can react to it or, of course, you can suppress it or push it aside and just say to yourself: It was slightly mirrored. And in this entrance, there was also a cab and there was also a specially marked place on the ground for an ambulance to park. And yes, it went into an entrance area with a glass sliding door. I parked directly in front of the entrance, took my things out of the vehicle and went into the building through the sliding door and was quite amazed. Because what I found was a real luxurious lobby, several hundred square meters in size and on the left side you could see a typical counter like in a hotel, decorated with marble and in the background there were a few monitors and a few workstations, etc. And that was this so-called concierge area. So there the residents could, for example, pick up mail or drop off laundry. But also, their visitors could register there and that was the purpose of this concierge. And from this same reception I got assigned for the job. So those were the ones who took care of my assignment. And yes, I went over to this lobby area, to this concierge area, and I approached a lady. And she told me to wait for a short moment. Then I had a little more time to get the overall impression of this place.

And as I said, it was quite a luxurious large room, several hundred square meters, with very high ceilings and you could see on the left side, at the end of this lobby, a huge mammoth staircase on two levels. The floor was made of natural stone granite I would say, whatever. The banister was made of glass and next to this huge grandiose staircase was a glass elevator. The elevator drove up to the second floor, where the stairs also led to. And then it more or less disappeared into the building, in the ceiling. So, you could see all that from below. And on the other side of this staircase, you could see a huge sitting area in the lobby, with a fireplace and a huge painting on the wall. Big, massive, heavy couch elements and several bookshelves. It actually looked more like a small, cozy library, where you might sit down in the evening with a cognac, a beer,coffee, or whatever and pull a book from the shelf and then read an exciting story. And that's exactly what this lobby area was intended for: the residents of the building.

And as I said, it was quite a luxurious large room, several hundred square meters, with very high ceilings and you could see on the left side, at the end of this lobby, a huge mammoth staircase on two levels. The floor was made of natural stone granite I would say, whatever. The banister was made of glass and next to this huge grandiose staircase was a glass elevator. The elevator drove up to the second floor, where the stairs also led to. And then it more or less disappeared into the building, in the ceiling. So, you could see all that from below. And on the other side of this staircase, you could see a huge sitting area in the lobby, with a fireplace and a huge painting on the wall. Big, massive, heavy couch elements and several bookshelves. It actually looked more like a small, cozy library, where you might sit down in the evening with a cognac, a beer,coffee, or whatever and pull a book from the shelf and then read an exciting story. And that's exactly what this lobby area was intended for: And next to this fireplace seating area, there was an additional, I would say, espresso bar. The residents were always able to get drinks there, and in the evenings, they were also supplied with drinks and so on. That was also a meeting place. So, it was actually similar to a hotel bar. You can imagine it like that. And in the middle area, everything was still so elegantly divided with huge potted plants that almost reached the six- to seven-meter-high ceiling. There was also large plants. Sensational!

It was really great and super elegant. And when I had gained this impression, someone from this concierge area also took care of me and then told me: Yes, you are the crime scene cleaner, then be so kind and please come with me. Well, then I thought, maybe we'll go to this elevator now and then probably take the elevator to some area of the building where there's an apartment or a nursing room. My assumption that someone simply died at that age and there were of course many older people present in the lobby area. But in this case, everything was completely different than expected. The lady went with me in the direction of these stairs. You have to imagine that this staircase below was still covered with such a wall, and in the wall itself had a beige metal door outside. From the outside you could only see the doorknob, so I didn't notice the door at first. This wall was practically between the elevator and these stairs and was not really relevant for me. And I wasn’t suspecting anything when we went straight into this direction, because it was totally incomprehensible to me that there could possibly be a place where a corpse was found. But she then gave me the key and said: Well, they will probably already smell it and you could actually perceive this typical sweet smell of a corpse decomposition in the lobby already. And then I asked her again: Yes, will I find the corpse in the chamber? And then I had thought again: is it perhaps a work accident? But with a lying duration of several days to weeks, that can't really be the case. So, it didn't come into consideration for me, but she put the key in my hand and said: Don't be angry with me, but I would actually like not to see the whole incident again and I am burdened enough anyway, because it was the older man, Alfred. He is very close to my heart.

It was really great and super elegant. And when I had gained this impression, someone from this concierge area also took care of me and then told me: Cause of Death. The podcast. The victim.

That's what got me interested. I asked her: Yes, Alfred is the one who died. And what exactly happened? So, she said: Yes, look, please look for yourself. I can't talk about it now. Alfred was such a great guy and Alfred was a very popular resident. He has also always flirted with us in the front at the concierge and also with nurses he has always been fooling around. Alfred used to be a boxer and always challenged the big, strong man nurses to a shadow boxing match. He said, I'll punch you right in the face or something, she said, and she told me that with a slight sob and a bit of moist eyes. She also told me that Alfred was still a really agile old man. He felt totally comfortable in this living community and still had a daughter whom he visited regularly. And also, a girlfriend he has at least always said. My chicks, I have to take care of my chicks. He still presented himself as a womanizer I would say and still talked about his libido and so on. So, it must have been a sensational guy, at least that's what she told me.

So, he seemed to have an incredible charisma at this place and has really stood there as a shining figure in the room. Yes, and then she also told me that Alfred had been away every now and then and that she somehow had a strange feeling and then suddenly stopped talking and didn't want to tell me anything else. At that point you also need to respect that. Of course, we always want to know what happened, or at least I do. I'm very interested, but of course there are also limits. And when you realize, okay, people are just approaching their emotional limit, then you have to disengage. And with all honesty I must also admit to myself that my curiosity must simply step back and I must say to myself: please leave the people in peace, because for me it was not completely understandable, but if it was a dear fellow and so on. I then in any case, after I got the key, unlocked this little metal door and I want to redescribe the door again. It opened groaning outward into the lobby and it was a thick lined door, like a fire door.

So, he seemed to have an incredible charisma at this place and has really stood there as a shining figure in the room. Yes, and then she also told me that Alfred had been away every now and then and that she somehow had a strange feeling and then suddenly stopped talking and didn't want to tell me anything else. At that point you also need to respect that. Of course, we always want to know what happened, or at least I do. I'm very interested, but of course there are also limits. And when you realize, okay, people are just approaching their emotional limit, then you have to disengage. And with all honesty I must also admit to myself that my curiosity must simply step back and I must say to myself: And when I unlocked the door, it only opened with force and also had a slight pull mechanism, so that it also automatically closed again. So somehow it had a preload that always caused this door to close again automatically. In addition, the door was extremely small. So, I'll put it this way, a small boy would have fit in there. It was like a garden shed for kids, something like that. Maybe a meter high. I had to almost fold up to even get in this door. And so, I unlocked this door. Then such flood of odor came towards me. Due to the suction in this room, I practically had this whole smell of corpses in front of me all at once. And that was a rough note. So, it stunk. Really disgusting. But it wasn't just the combination of my typical corpse smell, somehow it didn't just smell like decay, but there was something else.

So, he seemed to have an incredible charisma at this place and has really stood there as a shining figure in the room. Yes, and then she also told me that Alfred had been away every now and then and that she somehow had a strange feeling and then suddenly stopped talking and didn't want to tell me anything else. At that point you also need to respect that. Of course, we always want to know what happened, or at least I do. I'm very interested, but of course there are also limits. And when you realize, okay, people are just approaching their emotional limit, then you have to disengage. And with all honesty I must also admit to myself that my curiosity must simply step back and I must say to myself: Cause of Death. The Podcast. The crime scene.

The room was dark and there was no external light switch in the room itself, at least I didn't find it at that time. You could switch it from the concierge service because there was a light strip on the ceiling, but I honestly didn't see it at the time. The room was also very deep. It was such an elongated room; it went a few meters into the back and you couldn't see all the way to the end. Because, as I said, it was quite dark in the room and the light actually only came in from behind, from this lobby area, from this glass façade. It was quite flooded with light and therefore I could see about two meters into the room. But what I could see was a huge plant bowl, a planter. It was decorated with ornaments, was clay-colored and I would say about 80 centimeters in diameter. It stood on this floor and the floor itself in the lobby, that was a marble floor. And the door, it had a metal strip. And in connection to it in this room was pure, bare-naked concrete, screed, floor. And there was this bucket on it. And then I could already see: ah well, maggots everywhere. It stank, as I said, pretty extreme. And around this bucket there was a typical dark brown stain. The screed was really soaked up with this liquid and I thought to myself: okay, all clear.

Jackpot. A lot of work. The very first thing I did was to get another lamp, because I couldn't work in that room under those conditions. So, I went back to my car and looked over at the concierge service. And at that moment, when I was looking over there, the lady came to me all excited and gave me a lot of input. She told me: "You know, I have to tell you this again. Now you have seen it. And what do you say to that? I said, "For now, I'll just see the planter," and she said: Oh Alfred, poor Alfred. I've always had a strange feeling in the last few days. And now you have to add that Alfred was always traveling and Alfred was just such a typical Berlin citizen. And Alfred always failed to do one thing, namely to let people know that he was going on a trip. He always thought it was nice when people came looking for him, more or less. Then he promised again and again that he would never do that again. And in this case, it was just that Alfred was already missing after the first day. He was a very conspicuous personality. Accordingly, he was missed immediately when he wasn't there. And this lady said to me at that time: I somehow had a strange feeling. I mean Alfred was often not there.

But this time I had a funny gut feeling. It felt somehow strange. I was still thinking, I hope nothing happened to him. I don't know why I felt that way, she said, but it was in her inner communication and somehow through the everyday business and of course also the stress that came before and so on and the hustle and bustle, she repressed it a bit. Then she said: Well, Alfred has been away many times and he is like that and should be like that. He should be allowed to live a self-determined life. So, she repressed it and at that moment really cried, burst into tears and at that point interrupted the conversation. Then I got down to work, went over to the room and after I turned on the flashlight, I saw the whole extent of it. I have looked into the flower pot and in it was this accumulated liquid, which made over three 2-euro piece large holes in the ground and then ran off on the screed. But this planter was also completely soaked from the inside and you could see grip marks at the edge. So, on the edge above this bucket, you could see that someone had grabbed it everywhere. There were fingerprints everywhere and in the bucket itself inside was a huge shit.

But this time I had a funny gut feeling. It felt somehow strange. I was still thinking, I hope nothing happened to him. I don't know why I felt that way, she said, but it was in her inner communication and somehow through the everyday business and of course also the stress that came before and so on and the hustle and bustle, she repressed it a bit. Then she said: Cause of Death. The Podcast. The piece of evidence.

It had already changed his shape, but you could still identify him quite clearly. Someone took a shit in the flowerpot and then it became a bit strange for me, because the corpse was found in the flowerpot and there were no other really visible traces. But someone died in there. How could that be? My head started spinning. Everything was highly speculative. And I thought to myself at the time, well, the scenario itself, I just have to clear that up now. I couldn't help but go back to the front to the service department and talked to the ladies and said that I simply needed to know to continue my procedure: What happened exactly? And then they told me the whole story. So, Alfred was probably a very nice, but also sometimes confused older gentleman. That means sometimes he had small lapses and one had suspected at that time that he drinks now and then perhaps a bit too much. So, Alfred was sometimes a little bit confused. But Alfred was also someone who liked to entertain everyone downstairs in this lobby area with a nice book and a cognac by the fireplace, telling his stories from the past, and yes, just enjoying life. And Alfred was also known for doing his business in this area of the lobby. There was a toilet facility, and he always held his meeting in this toilet facility, and it always lasted.

He has also always announced: "Well, I'm going to do my business now," and he always came out afterwards to say how everything worked out, etc. Some people thought it was disgusting, some thought it was funny, but it was Alfred. And what happened on that day? On this day, technology from the elevator next to it was installed in this little room. There has been an elevator maintenance, a software maintenance or technical maintenance and the technician himself has been in and out of that room several times. On this same day, on this incident day before Alfred disappeared. And this technician has probably, before he has gone, left this door close. That is, the door didn't close all the way, otherwise it wouldn't be explainable at all how Alfred got into this room. And the rest can then only be conjectured: Alfred was probably slightly confused that evening and perhaps drank a bit too much. Alfred then probably went into this technical room to go to the toilet and simply lost his orientation, because there was no light in the room. The door probably shut and Alfred then took a shit in this flower pot.

And one thing is for sure, we know that today, because he was seen sitting there dead and squatting. He slipped completely into this flower pot. It was very stable and Alfred probably didn't make it. But probably tried. That's why there are these grip marks everywhere on the left and right, these fingerprints on the flowerpot. He probably tried to flip this flower pot over and if you imagine it like that. For Alfred, it was probably as if he himself, as an adult or as a child, slipped into a garbage can with his butt, and then he knew what it was like. Then you squat in there like a little parcel crammed together and can no longer get out. And this chain of circumstances, maybe the door was still ajar at the time and someone pushed it shut. The fact is: this room was quite soundproof.

Because of the technology, they put emphasis on soundproofing elements and you could not knock against the wall or even the door from the flower pot. So, Alfred was sitting in his flower pot, alone with his shit. And I don't even want to imagine how terrible that must have been for Alfred. And even if it doesn't just sound odd, but maybe even a little bit funny for one or the other, it's still extremely tragic, of course. To die like that is really shitty in the truest sense of the word. And that was the story of Alfred's death and I thought to myself: wow, that's quite a story, I've never experienced it in that form before. This chain of circumstances are extreme. And now there was the situation again, and I had to think about it the whole time I was cleaning up: this gut feeling of the lady at the concierge service. Why didn't she follow up on this gut feeling? And I asked her that and she said: Yes, you know, I actually wanted us to look for Alfred in every room in this building. Because I really had such a very strange feeling.

Yes, and the floor that I had to clean in this room, it was extremely soaked. And this narrow room and also the heat of course that developed in the room and then with my protective suit and the mask and I had sweat running down - that was really torture for me. I was crouching there on all fours like a little parcel in the room. And at that moment I thought to myself: that's not possible. It stank so bad. And you could smell it in the lobby, too, at least after several days you would think that there was something wrong. I then took up the corpse fluid and, as I said, by taking up and down the corpse fluid on the surfaces and this sensory perception of the fluid, I still thought to myself: well, somehow, they not only had a gut feeling, it also smelled strange. So, you could have smelled the death and maybe at that moment, someone would have followed their gut feeling and this feeling several of the nurses felt it, so of course it felt strange for everyone, because Alfred was just a nice guy. He was simply missing. So, if he wasn't there and didn't light up the room, then somehow it wasn't the same for everyone else. And despite all that, no one got into action. Everybody thought: well, it will be alright. Alfred is just traveling again. After several days, by the way, they called the daughter and the daughter said: No, no, Alfred is not with me and they also called his potential girlfriend. She probably really existed, but she also lived several 100 km away and he went to visit her all the time. So, then they said: Well, maybe he still has a girlfriend, and we just don't know. And somehow, due to this given situation, no one thought anything of it.

Yes, and the floor that I had to clean in this room, it was extremely soaked. And this narrow room and also the heat of course that developed in the room and then with my protective suit and the mask and I had sweat running down - that was really torture for me. I was crouching there on all fours like a little parcel in the room. And at that moment I thought to myself: Life Impact

That is exactly the point. And exactly that has been this life effect from this corpse discovery, which has accompanied me. It always made me think about it afterwards. There are sometimes situations in life where something sounds funny, it feels funny, it looks funny. And it doesn't matter at all which sensory perception it affects for us personally and how we are focused with our sensory perception above all. The fact is: There are sometimes situations in life where you should perhaps follow your gut feeling and inspect the overall situation, because otherwise, in the worst case, a situation can arise that leads to death. And exactly with this, I would say, with this life effect I would like to say goodbye to you today. Thank you very much for listening to me. It would be really nice if you tune in again next time for a new episode of my podcast Cause of Death. If you liked the episode, please subscribe to my channel or send me a message at Marcell Engel.com. And yes, I wish you good health. Until then all the best, yours Marcell.

That is exactly the point. And exactly that has been this life effect from this corpse discovery, which has accompanied me. It always made me think about it afterwards. There are sometimes situations in life where something sounds funny, it feels funny, it looks funny. And it doesn't matter at all which sensory perception it affects for us personally and how we are focused with our sensory perception above all. The fact is: 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.

That is exactly the point. And exactly that has been this life effect from this corpse discovery, which has accompanied me. It always made me think about it afterwards. There are sometimes situations in life where something sounds funny, it feels funny, it looks funny. And it doesn't matter at all which sensory perception it affects for us personally and how we are focused with our sensory perception above all. The fact is: Join me!

That is exactly the point. And exactly that has been this life effect from this corpse discovery, which has accompanied me. It always made me think about it afterwards. There are sometimes situations in life where something sounds funny, it feels funny, it looks funny. And it doesn't matter at all which sensory perception it affects for us personally and how we are focused with our sensory perception above all. The fact is: I'm excited. Subscribe to the season and you won't be late for an episode.