⋅Tragedy Strikes at Home⋅
Two young children, 8 and 10, were brutally attacked and murdered here. The family, of course, was traumatized. In addition to their immense grief, they had two funerals to scrape together funds for, two murder investigations with which to cooperate, and the additional grief of a family member named as the suspect. They were emotionally and mentally unable to face the horror of entering the home or the untouched crime scene where the murders took place.
And if they HAD unwisely decided to enter the scene and attempt the cleanup, as some families do, the results most likely would have been appalling, and the family would have been completely unaware of the hidden catastrophic results of a layman cleanup—until it was too late.
After the children’s deaths and the ensuing crime-scene investigations, neighbors, who were disturbed and alarmed by the fact that no one had cleaned up the home, finally notified us. Five days had passed. It took three of our professionals over seven hours to restore this house to a point safe for painting and flooring contractors to enter and complete their work.
This is a typical day on the job for a professional crime-scene or death-scene cleaner. But, thank God, it’s not at all typical for the average person. Therefore, the average person should not attempt it.
Deadly Pathogens Make Cleanup Risky
Why call the professionals? There are numerous important reasons. We will discuss one of them here: Deadly Pathogens
Regardless of the circumstance—murder, suicide, assault, or accident—serious bio-hazards are almost always presented by a death or serious injury: blood, urine, feces, and rapidly deteriorating biological matter are usually abundantly present and begin to degrade very quickly once exposed to air, increasing the danger of an already-lethal environment. Blood, like other bodily fluids, can be lethal even before it degrades because it can be full of invisible and deadly pathogens. Cleaning it sufficiently to remove those pathogens absolutely cannot be done with over-the-counter detergents. This is the first—and most critical—reason to call a professional.
Cleaning blood and other bodily fluids sufficiently to remove dangerous pathogens absolutely cannot be done with over-the-counter detergents.
The majority of deaths are not discovered and reported right away. By the time they are discovered, hours, days, sometimes weeks have passed. In this case, authorities were not on the scene until the next day when the children didn’t show up for school that morning and authorities were contacted and dispatched to the home. By then, at least fourteen hours had passed since the deaths, plenty of time for the environment to become a bio-hazard.
The more time a dead body lies undiscovered, the more toxic the environment becomes.
Then more time elapses as crime-scene personnel do their investigation and take their samples. Very often, the circumstances of a death cannot be determined at the scene, prompting longer and more secure investigations during which nothing can be touched or cleaned. A grizzly death or injury scene can be secured for up to a day or more while it is under investigation by city, county, and state officials. By the time the area where the death occurred can be released and family or friends allowed to enter, the entire environment is a literal cesspool of deadly pathogens and bacteria. Because this was a double homicide of two young children and the suspect had abducted the children’s mother and crossed state lines, this particular murder scene was secured for two days following the half day before the bodies were discovered. Two bodies lying dead for over three days present bio-hazards well beyond what a layman has the knowledge, equipment, or skill to safely handle.
Federal regulations state that all bodily fluids are a bio-hazard.
The environment of a deceased individual is toxic because of air-borne, fluid-borne, and blood-borne pathogens that you cannot see. Blood- and fluid-borne pathogens are organisms that are present in human blood and other fluids. Air-borne pathogens are released into the air and cause damage when they are inhaled. These pathogens become a greater threat if a deceased person is not discovered for days or weeks or if the circumstances of death cannot be determined at the scene and therefore prompt a longer and more secure investigation during which nothing can be touched or cleaned.
The average person has no idea how to protect himself while attempting to clean up after a messy death. A five-dollar pair of yellow gloves, a pollen mask, and a bucket of bleach don’t even come close to the protection you’ll need to work in such an environment. The professionals at Advanced Bio Treatment, however, have specialized equipment to do this kind of job and the knowledge to do a deep, effective, permanent cleaning.
We use EPA registered disinfectants and steam-injection machines to thoroughly clean the environment, removing the deadly pathogens and bacteria that might otherwise remain at the location.
If the unthinkable happens to you or to someone you know, call Advanced Bio Treatment. We can relieve loved ones of the emotional trauma of a crime-scene cleanup. Most importantly, we will do more than a cursory clean up. We know how to walk into an environment full of hazardous substances, safely contain them, remove them or clean them, and completely decontaminate a death scene following all OSHA, EPA, and state health department guidelines, to make it safe for loved ones to enter and to live in again.
