[bjvanles] refrigerated truck

the common belief goes, you never know when you might need to murder, so it is good to own a gun, and so many people do (under the pretense "self defense", of course).  by the same logic, you never know when you might need to move a body, so it is good to own a vehicle with a body-sized freezer compartment.

such a vehicle allows body disposal to be widely separated in both time and location from that of the murder, making it difficult for investigators to connect a found body (if ever found) to an earlier disappearance.  it can also buy time for the perpetrator to carefully plan how to dispose of the body, especially useful if the murder was spur of the moment.

"real friends help you move a body."  if you have a real friend with such a vehicle, the person storing and eventually dumping the body can appear unrelated to the murderer, similar to contract killing (hitman).

an RV (camper van) seems a good form factor for such a vehicle.  it is a common type of vehicle so won't arouse suspicion.  (tangent: but maybe it will arouse suspicion if you are black, as camping seems not a popular activity among African-Americans.  of course, doing anything while black arouses suspicion in America.  this method of surreptitiously disposing a body is therefore only available to white folks.)  it likely already has an onboard generator to power appliances while the vehicle is parked.  very large, or extra, fuel tanks to support long-running power are likely an easily available option.  (though well-insulated freezers can be very energy efficient.)  driving an RV into remote wilderness to dump a body will also likely not arouse suspicion: such destinations are common sites for white-people camping.

with enough time, a body can become freeze dried, though I think this works well only in a freezer with automatic defrost, which loses efficiency.  after freeze drying, there won't be as much smelly decomposition when the body is returned to room temperature and less chance for bodily fluids to be deposited where forensic detectives might find them.

if you want to freeze dry (or desiccate by any other means), should you instead use a dedicated device?  unfortunately, many (most?) chest freezers do not have auto defrost.  avoid upright freezers in general, but especially avoid those with non-removeable shelves.  how easy is it to modify a freezer to freeze dry faster?  for food storage, people typically want to avoid freezer burn.

hypothesize that one of the reasons why the murdered corpse of Geraldine Kelly's husband stored for decades in an unpowered chest freezer at a storage facility did not arouse suspicion is because the freezer had originally been powered on for a long time, long enough to (somehow) freeze dry the body.

automatic defrost (presumably) deposits the evaporated (sublimated) vapors of freeze drying into the atmosphere outside the freezer.  the vapors are mostly water, but could incriminating trace chemicals deposit (desublimate or condense) on surfaces outside the freezer?  can forensic investigators distinguish between trace deposits from freeze drying legal meat versus long pig?  maybe it is better to avoid automatic defrost and keep everything sealed inside.

things left in a freezer for a long time get frozen to the bottom and sides.  this could be a problem if you suddenly need to dispose of the frozen body in a hurry.  maybe a layer of sand or some other powder can lessen sticking to the bottom.  or, wrap the body, e.g., tarp, drop cloth, window film, shower curtain, before freezing.  how large does the wrap need to be?  it needs to be ready in advance.

the remains of leaked and desublimated bodily fluids, including sand, other powder, or wrap, need to be cleaned out of the freezer, a time-consuming operation.  how difficult is it to thoroughly clean a freezer, for example, the inside of its drain hose if it has one?

given how useful RVs would be for "self defense", it is surprising that they are not as popular as guns (or maybe they are popular for this reason but I am unaware).  it is surprising they are not restricted and regulated like guns.  although restricting RVs and chest freezers will make a lot of non-murderers unhappy, making non-murderers unhappy has not stopped gun (and other weapon) regulators.

merely brandishing a gun is often assault, the crime of threatening to kill.  should conspicuously owning an RV be also?  can one inconspicuously own an RV?

how difficult is disposing of the body compared to all the other tasks required for getting away with murder?  study the murderers who did get caught.

also inspired by Benjamin Beale, New Orleans.

previously, burning instead of freezing.