I searched through all the issues regarding items and I have yet to find anything relating to my question.
First of all I am trying to figure out how long an item will stay on the ground if I drop it out of my inventory. I was really low on blood and was going to die soon anyways so I put all of my items into my mountain backpack and my ballistic vest. I placed them on top of a tower that the normal player would never think to go on top of because there is no loot there. I then proceeded to jump off the tower killing myself. It took me about an hour to get back to where I had dropped the backpack and the vest and they were gone. 6 hours of play went poof.
2nd part of it which I do know there is a bunch of threads about it, but it is kinda a serious issue. The fact that when you die your body disappears almost instantly.