⋅One Final Fishing Trip⋅

Every year these four friends from Marietta, Georgia, a suburb northwest of Atlanta, take a fishing trip together and stay in a cabin, owned by the grandparents of one of the four, at a nearby lake. On this particular trip, one of the men stayed behind to catch up on a little reading while his three friends went on a traditional nighttime fishing expedition. When they returned at dawn, they found their friend sitting in the recliner. The reading lamp was burning, and his book lay haphazardly on the floor beside the recliner as if it had fallen from the man’s lap. At first glance, he appeared to be asleep. But the book lay in a pool of blood, and the blood was dripping from their friend’s arm, which hung directly over the book. Their friend had shot himself through his right temple. But the three men did not absorb the horror of the scene right away. The eye sees what it expects to see and what it wants to see.

Struggling to Understand

As the full thrust of what had happened sank in, the three men were shocked and bewildered. This fishing trip was something they planned and looked forward to every year, something they had been doing for over 10 years.

Their friend had seemed happy and excited on the drive up and had shown no indication of what he intended to do.

Now the three survivors faced the heart-wrenching task of calling his wife back in Marietta who, in turn, would have to tell the couple’s two children who were just seven and nine years old.

Questions weighed heavily on the three friends: how long had he been planning to do this? Why did he do it on this fishing trip? Why did he do it at all? He had a beautiful wife, and every time his friends saw them together, they seemed affectionate and close. They had two healthy, beautiful little boys whom he talked about constantly. He was always smiling and laughing.

He was the guy who always cracked a joke when someone around him was upset and invariably created a festive, happy mood.

What could have prompted this violent suicide?

Stepping Into A Nightmare

We were hired by the family who owns the cabin, and when we got there, we were greeted by the three stricken friends who had discovered the victim only hours before.

In tragic situations like this, especially when family or friends are present, our goal is to go in and return things to normal as quickly and compassionately as possible.

That can be a challenge when the scene is especially grisly, like this one.

The blast from a gunshot wound to the head leaves a shocking mess even after the medical examiner removes the victim’s body. The walls, lamp, ceiling, floor, and the curtains all had copious amounts of blood on them. The window behind the recliner was not only sprayed with blood but also caked with dried brain tissue. The rug onto which blood seeped from the victim for at least eight hours had to be removed and discarded. Luckily, the wood floor beneath the thick braided rug was unaffected.

The One That Got Away

Throughout the day, the three friends began uncovering details of the last few hours of the victim’s life. By the end of the day, a tentative picture of what probably motivated the victim to kill himself emerged.

When the friends could not reach the victim’s wife, they had called his brother, who informed them that the victim’s wife had used the fishing trip as an opportunity to run off with her lover, leaving the children with their uncle, the victim’s brother.

“She’s gone, buddy,” his brother whispered into the phone.

Those were the last words the victim heard. His friends conjectured that he hung up and shot himself before his brother could call him back to try to comfort him.

Down to the Job

While we cannot clean away the memory of what happened here, we can and absolutely do completely clean away the awful evidence. We safely package and transport what can’t be cleaned and thoroughly decontaminate what can be cleaned. Advanced Bio Treatment professionals are well trained in the handling, decontaminating, and disposal of bio-hazardous materials, which comprise anything that has been contaminated with blood, urine, feces, and other bodily fluids. According to federal regulations, all bodily fluids are considered bio-hazardous because they can contain deadly pathogens that transfer Hepatitis B and C, HIV, and a myriad of other nasty bacterial diseases to anyone who touches them.

For this reason, you should always call a professional crime-scene cleanup company to help you restore an environment in which someone has died violently. But because crime-scene cleanup is an unregulated industry, you should be very careful about who you hire. Advanced Bio Treatment strictly enforces and abides by all OSHA, EPA, and state guidelines. We use only professional-grade equipment and hospital-grade chemicals to decontaminate, clean, and deodorize. Most important, we recognize what can and cannot be salvaged, and we are licensed to transport bio-hazardous waste. We take no chances with your safety or our own.

If you ever find yourself in a tragic position like our client in Marietta, Georgia, please let us help you. If you have questions about decontaminating a scene that contains blood or other bodily fluids, about your payment options, or about what your current insurance policy covers, please don’t hesitate to give Advanced Bio Treatment a call at 800-295-1684.