Man’s Body Found Trapped Inside Dinosaur Statue After Horrific Smell Leads to Grim Discovery

Police in Spain were confronted with one of the strangest accidental death cases in recent memory after a man was discovered trapped inside a giant papier-mache dinosaur statue.

The bizarre discovery was made in 2021 in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona, after a father and son noticed a terrible smell coming from a stegosaurus sculpture outside a building.

The pair had been out walking on a Saturday afternoon when the odor caught their attention.

They moved closer to investigate and spotted what appeared to be a body through an opening in one of the dinosaur’s hollow legs.

Regional police, known as the Mossos d’Esquadra, were called to the scene and eventually recovered the remains of a 39-year-old man from inside the sculpture.

Authorities said the death appeared to be accidental.

Investigators believed the man had entered the dinosaur headfirst after apparently dropping his cellphone inside and trying to retrieve it.

Once inside the narrow leg, however, he became trapped and was unable to free himself.

“It’s an accidental death; there was no violence,” a police spokesperson said at the time.

“This person got inside the statue’s leg and got trapped. It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he’d dropped. It looks like he entered the statue headfirst and couldn’t get out.”

The inside of the sculpture was so cramped that three fire brigade units were called to help remove the body.

Firefighters ultimately had to cut open part of the stegosaurus replica’s leg in order to reach the man.

Local reports said the man’s family had reported him missing only hours before his body was discovered.

Police, however, believed he may have been trapped inside the statue for several days.

Investigators were unable to determine exactly how he became wedged upside down or why he was unable to escape.

The unusual circumstances quickly attracted widespread attention in Spain, with outlets including El País and La Vanguardia reporting on the case.

The discovery also became a major topic of discussion among residents in the surrounding community.

The large dinosaur statue had been positioned outside the city’s Cubic Building, where it served as decorative signage connected to a former movie theater.

Following the discovery of the man’s body, the Santa Coloma de Gramenet city council confirmed that the dinosaur sculpture was removed from the area.