{"id":5475,"date":"2021-10-30T17:10:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T21:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.167.168.176\/~phillips\/kerriansnotebook\/kerriansnotebook\/?p=5475"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:53:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:53:33","slug":"kn-p-246-bodies-in-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pattiphillipsbooks.com\/kerriansnotebook\/2021\/10\/kn-p-246-bodies-in-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"KN, p. 246 “Bodies in the Wall”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there are no paragraph separations in this article, please double-click on the title to create a more readable version.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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More bodies seem to pop up on TV at Halloween than at any other time of year. Cop shows usually add a spooky element to body discovery, with ghostly noises and haunted-house sound effects. Standards & Practices (network oversight departments that determine whether certain material is appropriate for public viewing) apparently looks the other way during October when a bit more blood and gore is added to the crime scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One popular plot hook is to stow bodies in a wall. In general, the fictional bodies are discovered by accident when a building is being demolished, but in a second season episode of a Canadian P.I. show, Private Eyes<\/em>, \u201cBrew the Right Thing,\u201d a family brewery is the target of repeated sabotage. An investigation into the puzzling incidents leads to the P.I.s swinging sledgehammers into a wall constructed decades before.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Why stow the bodies inside a wall<\/strong>? It would seem safer for the perpetrator to remove the body from the scene of the crime and bury it elsewhere. But consider this scenario: perhaps the murder was a crime of passion and the perpetrator had not planned to \u2018off\u2019 anyone at a construction site. A confrontation got out of hand and somebody wound up dead. Not wanting to go to jail, the perpetrator seizes the opportunity right in front of him, grabs some plastic tarp, and rolls the body into it. An unfinished wall turns into a burial<\/span> hideaway.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s take a look at the restrictions of hiding a body at home inside a wall with the help of Kelley, our resident 5-foot skeleton. Standard two-by-four studs actually measure about 1 1\/2 inches by 3 1\/2 inches. Kelley is 5-6 inches thick, front to back through the sternum. Sooooo, unless the victim\u2019s ribs have been crushed, his chest will poke out past the studs, requiring an adjustment to the hiding place.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Note: the normal distance between most studs is 16-24 inches. A big man\u2019s shoulders wouldn\u2019t fit straight in the narrower space, even discounting the thickness of the chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a Hawaii 5-0<\/em> (modern version) 4th season episode, \u201cBuried Secrets,\u201d a wall is extended out into the room to create a thicker wall space that accommodates a body. More than one TV or movie crime boss has had his\/her henchmen place new drywall over dead snitches, even using abandoned real estate properties as a final destination.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The assumption is that nobody will find the body once it\u2019s in the wall. Honestly, there is really no reason to think otherwise, unless the criminals are caught in the act while mudding the drywall, or a guilty party is overcome with remorse and points a finger, or a homeowner decides to knock down a wall during a renovation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Death in Paradise,<\/em> a super popular British series, featured a disgruntled husband who buried his wife in the patio cement, after much was made of the construction site at his remote house. That cement truck raised no suspicions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other popular spaces to stuff a fictional TV body:<\/span><\/p>\n