[Eva]

My guess is that he would have had to do more than put branches and leaves over her to cover the smell of rotting flesh.

[SarahW]

I will be glad when we can stop speculation about her "burial" conditions, or if she was buried at all. Yesterday, the remains WERE found to have about a foot thick covering of leaves and some soil, with evidence that the top layer of leaves had been there since they fell in November. The terrain and might have been helpful in trapping and/or diverting smells. The scent may have carried away from the trail. Also, bodies smell, but the rate and type of decay can make that vary. She might have turned to soap in the heat. That makes the fat smell less. There might have been a natural depression in the ground that served as a shallow grave and made covering her easier. If the killer used the loamy stuff on the ground it would have worked like loose soil. Perhaps by the time they searched she was already skeletal. (In DC heat and humidity, that can take as little as two weeks with the help of insects)