A Crime Scene Cleaner Answers All The Questions We've Always Been Curious About
Though years of watching CSI and Dexter taught you the basic protocols for investigating a crime scene, those series never show the most gruesome part of all: what goes into a crime scene cleanup. If you consider yourself a junkie for true crime, specifically gross crime scenes, then you'll definitely want to hear these crime scene cleanup technicians explain their jobs.
Gruesome site sanitation requires so much more than just mopping and vacuuming. While cleaning up after criminals doesn't seem like an ideal job, some professionals experience a great sense of satisfaction when they complete a particularly tough job.
Would you want to make $50K or more tackling these crime scene cleanup horror stories?
How Badly Does A Dead Person Smell?
Response from dariusjl3:
"Every dead person smells different. I learned that lesson quick on the job. The smell is rancid. We wore air-filtered respirators and you can still smell the decomposition through the mask. But it all depends on the room temperature. I went to a scene where an old man died of natural causes and you [could] smell the decomposition down the street, and then after that I went to a guy's RV home where there was no AC when he died. Air temperatures is a big part in the smell."
How'd You Get This Job?
Response from dariusjl3:
"Indeed.com is my best friend when it came to finding jobs!"
Are Cleanups Cheap?
Response from dariusjl3:
"Our jobs run people around 5k to 100k. My last job cost a family 60k to do. So imagine walking to a widow and telling her that's it's gonna cost her 30k to clean up her husband. It's very heart wrenching to do.
"For starters, the job was located 60 miles from our home office, so we charged them travel fees then we charged them for the initial estimate, including any and every supply that will be used or not used. The house was a three-day decomposition job; there was blood in every room of the house so we had to quarantine all the rooms off."
"Since the house has a the bad smell of decomposition, we use Hepa fans that will filter the air in the house and those fans will run constantly scrubbing the air. And there are two techs and one supervisor at each job so the job has to cover the on-job pay rate and travel rates.
"But what make this line of work hard and expensive for the company is the state permits needed to handle Biohazards. The company has to pay the state fees to drive and dispose of it properly so we charge the customers that. After all that is totaled then we get to cleaning. When each bottle of cleaner costs $75 and you use three bottles for each room in a four-bedroom home (and that's just the cleaner) that runs up the bill pretty quick.
"Most home owner insurances will pay for majority of the job then it's up to the client to pay their deductible before or after the job is complete."
What Part Of Town Do You Do The Most Work In?
Response from dariusjl3:
"I'm glad someone finally asked this question! The thing is most of our work is done in the nice 'rich' parts of town due to homeowners insurance and the high rate of suicides in the wealthy community."
How Many Bodies Have You Seen?
Response from Chrisbrn:
"I have actually never seen one. We go in after the coroner picks up the body. Most I've see was a couple pieces of jaw and skull."
What's Your Creepiest Encounter?
Response from dariusjl3:
"This lady was going through an ugly divorce so she committed a very bloody suicide while her four dogs where in the house... When we arrived the dogs were soaked in her blood and she had animal skulls scattered around the house. I think that house is now haunted!"