[CAPPSMADNESS]

Decomposition starts at the time of death, most bodies start producing a faint odor within 12 hours or so due to the natural gases that build up in the corpse as putrification starts (in best case scenario, as in a mortuary). A lot depends on where a body is and the types of weather it has been exposed to.

[sinkspur]

Decomposition starts at the time of death, most bodies start producing a faint odor within 12 hours or so due to the natural gases that build up in the corpse as putrification starts (in best case scenario, as in a mortuary). A lot depends on where a body is and the types of weather it has been exposed to.

That's why morticians want to claim a body as soon after death as possible, before tissue gas obstruction prevents the free flow of the embalming fluid. Aspiration removes the contaminants in the major organs, thus removing the source of odor (which is the result of bacteria).