Suicides are the 7th leading cause of death in the United States and that number grows every day.
The calls never get any easier as often we must see, not only the physical wake of these rash decisions, but also we are left to witness the brutal emotional damage sustained by the family members left behind.
When those “secondary victims’, as we call them at ABT, are children, emotions can run high. One such call we took involved the suicide of a father who had decided to leave behind a wife and three children. The client who contacted us identified herself as the grieving widow, and immediately I knew that this would be a tough job.
The drive out to the home took us through the laid back coastal communities near Savannah, Georgia. Beautiful homes built around the turn of the century, competed with some of the most gorgeous live Oak trees, draped with long tendrils of spanish moss, for our admiration. The overall effect was a neighborhood frozen in time, and except for the modern conveniences such as cars and streetlights, one might believe that they had been transported into the past.
The home we pulled up in front of was just as charming as the rest of the homes on the block, and no one would guess the horror that awaited us in the built on garage towards the back of the property.
The woman who had reached out to us for help, stood waiting on a large wrap around porch, and as we approached she descended a small flight of stairs to join us on the walk up the driveway to the scene of the tragedy.
She told us that her husband had been a very good man, who had always done everything in his power to provide for his family. Like so many stories we hear lately, he had fallen victim to the recession and had lost a small fortune on some bad investments. With his debts looming, and two children about to leave for Universities he could no longer afford to send them to, he took a big gamble on a risky business venture in an effort to get back on top. When that too went south and he was left facing the prospect of having to break the news to his wife that they were basically destitute, he snapped.
Taking a shotgun from his gun locker, he waited until he was home alone then went out to the attached garage, kneeled down on a drop cloth, and pulled the trigger.
Standing in the doorway to the garage, it looked like a bomb had gone off. Blood and brain matter covered the floor, walls and ceiling. The saddest sight was the children’s belongings that were now splattered with the life blood of their father, a clear sign that their childhoods were over or at the very least would never be the same again.
This job became a labor of love as it took many days to completely restore the home and remove any trace of the tragedy which had taken place inside. I just didn’t want any child, already dealing with the loss of their father, to accidentally stumble on a piece of skull or even a single drop of blood. After everything was said and done, we learned that the home had been sold and that it had provided the family with the necessary funds that they needed to move forward. Sometimes I guess one door has to close for another to open. I wondered if that was the father’s plan all along.
You don’t want to try and attempt to clean up a crime scene or accident scene. Blood and other bodily fluids can contain dangerous pathogens which pose a significant risk to human health. Our scene clean up technicians will decontaminate and remove any blood, tissue or bodily fluids a crime and trauma scene has left behind. Advanced Bio Treatment is a professional scene cleaning company.
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 Worksafe guidelines in our cleanup efforts. We only deploy EPA registered hospital grade cleansers and disinfectants.
