Sadly, in This Business We See a Lot of Suffering and Sorrow with Suicides
Often from families struggling to make sense of the senseless death of their loved one, and never more so than when suicide is involved.
The people left behind are tasked with the job of piecing together the final moments and events that led their family member down such a dark road that they felt the only escape was to end their life. The family members who remain, assume the pain and burdens of unanswered questions and truly become victims themselves.
For instance, not too long ago I was called out to a residence on a quiet street in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a nicely decorated home, and I immediately noticed that it had a woman’s touch about it. I also saw right away the evidence of a young boy: video games were piled up on the modest television set, and a pair of worn Nike sneakers sat just to the side of the front door.
I was ushered down a long halfway and up a set of stairs to the first bathroom and boy, let me tell you, you never white get used to seeing the gruesome aftermath that a bullet to the head can cause in a tight space like that. There was brain matter everywhere, and blood covered the walls and ceilings like spray paint. Sometimes I tell myself that it’s just red spray paint. I’m a professional, but even we are not immune to some of the things we see, and with suicide being the 7th leading cause of death, and one that’s been growing since the last recession, we are unfortunately very adept at erasing the signs from homes and businesses.
As I began to assess the situation, I was approved by a family member who filled in the missing pieces for me and it was even more tragic than I thought. Apparently, John Doe had by all accounts appeared to be an upstanding citizen… he was a small business owner, with a new wife and a teenage step son. Everything seemed to be going fine until his wife discovered that he had drained their bank account and stolen her father’s pension checks to cover his mounting gambling debts. She quickly packed up her son and filled for divorce, moving into the charming home I now stood in, all on part time pay.
But John D. couldn’t stay away. He made harassing phone calls at her job and her home. Finally, when she took out a restraining order against him, he snapped. He decided that he would show her what it was like when he wasn’t around anymore. He bought a .38 special, wrote a couple of suicide notes to his children from another marriage, to his mother and to his latest ex-wife, then drove to her new home. There, he broke into through a back door, and then literally marched upstairs to the bathroom and shot himself knowing that her 12 year old son would be the first home that day.
Terrible, Just Terrible
And although we specialize in cleanup and restoration, we are still trained to be emphatic… and I really felt for this family and all they were having to endure. Luckily, the good part of my job is being there to take some of the weight off their shoulders during such a stressful time, no family member should ever be tasked with cleaning up after something like this.
To ensure proper decontamination of the scene, an experienced scene clean up service should be employed. Human feces, urine, and blood cleanup pose a significant risk to human health. Advanced Bio-Treatment is well trained in EPA and OSHA regulations for biohazard cleaning. Advanced Bio Treatment has experience in the decontamination and remediation of crime scenes, accident scenes, suicides and other unattended deaths. We will work with your insurance company to ensure that our biohazard cleanup services meets both your standards and theirs.
Our 24/7 Cleanup Service Areas Include: Florida, Georgia, Washington DC, New York , Kentucky and other crime scene states
If you need scene cleanup and decontamination guidance, have questions about your payment options, which clean up and decon procedures your current insurance policy covers or require our scene cleanup services immediately, don’t hesitate to give Advanced Bio Treatment a call at:800-295-1684.
