Its crazy to think that suicide is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, and depending on things like the economy or the weather, believe it or not, that number fluctuates.
As you can imagine, this means that a business like Advanced Bio Treatment, who specializes in cleaning up the aftermath of such an event, stays pretty busy.
Perhaps it sounds morbid, but the way people choose to do themselves in has always fascinated me. Of course, any time some poor soul decides that he’s at the end of his rope, no pun intended, and he does himself in, its a terribly tragic day. But maybe its how I cope with all the carnage I see, that I can read into the type of person the victim was depending on how they exited this world, I don’t know.
For instance, I’ve noticed that men, and in particular ex law enforcement or military, prefer to use firearms when doing the deed. Sometimes, they use really big guns and the mess left behind is something to behold. One time, at a scene where a man had used a shotgun to commit the act, the ceiling fan had been covered in blood and brains, spraying the walls with a wild pattern of gore. When the fan was shut off, bits and pieces of the victim’s flesh and skull hung down like stalagmites in a cave.
Women, however, prefer a quieter, less messy death. Usually overdosing on prescription narcotics or over the counter pain relievers. These cases can be tricky because the death is so quiet that it may go unnoticed for sometime until the body has decomposed to the point of saturating the property with smelly bodily fluids which eventually give themselves away with the stench.
One such case we took into our Baltimore/Fredericksburg office and involved a woman who had committed suicide with a combination of very strong pain pills and morphine… a very lethal cocktail.
The caller on this case was an apartment manager to the Richmond condo community in which the woman had lived. Apparently, nearly a month had gone by before the well sealed residence began to give up its secret. When she failed to pay her rent as usual, the manager had gone to post a letter of reminder on the door when she had caught the unmistakable odor of death and decay.
Inside the apartment, the smell was overpowering. It appeared that the victim had not wanted to run up her air conditioning bill, and the warmer than usual climate had accelerated the rate of decomposition. Her body had started to turn to liquid before she was found.
A noxious, brown goo covered the tile floor where she had lain, and rivets of bodily fluid rode the irrigation of grout, spreading the foulness even further from the epicenter.
We were to remove all property since there were no family members to take away her life long possessions, and even though a couple of pieces could be saved for donation to various charity organizations, most was beyond help. The stench clung to everything and for weeks after I would catch a whiff every now and again, driving me insane.
Once everything was out, we began the cleanup process, removing the caked on layers of bodily waste and degradation. All trash from the condo had to be specially marked for proper disposal, but at the end, the clean up took about two days.
On the third day we sanitized the premises, safeguarding for future residents’ health, and then we set up an Ozone machine to remove lingering aromas on a molecular level.
Finally, we handed the property back over to the apartment manager who was stunned at the transformation. Just as we were leaving, the man turned to me and asked if I wanted to know why she had done it. Nodding, he shook his head and told me that she had recently lost custody of her two children who were now living with their father and stepmother in a different city. Shaking my head, I couldn’t imagine losing custody of a child, but then the thought crossed my mind, could the child imagine losing its mother forever? Ill never know.
Regardless of whether the scene is at your home and personal property, a commercial business, or industrial site, we’ll strictly adhere to OSHA regulations and API Work safe guidelines in our cleanup efforts. We only deploy EPA registered hospital grade cleansers and disinfectants.
If you need trauma or accidental death cleanup guidance, have questions about your payment options or current insurance policy covers don’t hesitate to give Advanced Bio Treatment a call at: 800-295-1684.
