The body of Carmelita Stevens, Murphy's girlfriend, was found in a state of decomposition.

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Across the farm, there were numerous animal carcasses in various states of decomposition.

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In the bedroom of the apartment, officers discovered the body of a woman "in a state of decomposition, " the statement said.

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In mammals, the structure of many of these decomposition products - with evocative names such as cadaverine - is known.

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He also said the rate of decomposition for bags varied depending on the environment they were left in and therefore a single date for labelling would be hard to determine.

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The decomposition of Williams' body was hastened by the fact it was in a top floor apartment, where the temperature soared in the summer heat.

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They will measure the amount of carbon, phosphate and nitrate in the soil, together with the rate of plant growth and microbial decomposition.

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"It will be an unknown location in the open desert, " he said, adding that a burial was needed because decomposition of the body had reached the point where the "corpse cannot last any longer".

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Last year a Dutch study found that draining Indonesian swamps to make way for oil-palm plantations resulted in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for each tonne of palm oil produced, by speeding up the decomposition of the peaty soil.

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