It’s unclear how long the 52-year old Indiana man had been hiding in a vat of poop but when officers stormed the small barn where he was holed up, they thought they had lost him.

The long, narrow barn has an open-air trough that runs along one side of the building and flows into a vat covered by a steel grate. The setup allowed the farmers who once used the barn to flush the animal manure from the floor into a holding tank.

An officer looked down and there, through the steel grate in the floor, he could see the top of his head in the cesspool

This guy is a real stinker from way back but hiding in a cess pool might be a new low for the guy.

In 1982, he was convicted of stomping a 40-year-old cabdriver to death in Fort Wayne and served 15 years in prison.

He was wanted on several warrants – including manufacturing methamphetamine and possession of a firearm

Officers pulled him out, and when heresisted and had to be stunned with a Taser to be placed under arrest. As soon as police took him into custody, he began shaking and talking incoherently. Apparently, he had been in the frigid pool of feces so long that his body temperature dropped dangerously low and he showed signs of hypothermia.

Medics cut Hovis’ clothes off, strapped him to a gurney and took him to Parkview Noble Hospital for treatment.

Officers drew straw to see who’d transport him to jail.

The still stinky guy was being held in County Jail without bail on charges of manufacturing meth, possession of meth, maintaining a common nuisance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, being a habitual offender, being a habitual substance offender, three counts of possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of paraphernalia.