Taphophilia.(dot) Com - What Its Like To Clean Up Crime Scenes

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What Its Like To Clean Up Crime Scenes

Written by DeadGirl
Wednesday, 22 February 2006
2/16/2006 St. Louis, Missouri KTHV-Dealing with death is an agonizing situation with any family. But the emotional toll can linger if you're forced to clean up the mess from a suicide or murder. "We use Virosides, deodorizers, depending on whether it's a decomposing," says Trent Grubbs. Grubbs is in his work van showing some of the tools of his trade. Grubbs is the founder of Arkansas Crime Scene Cleans Up Inc., a one of a kind company in Arkansas. "It is a dirty job, to finish the clichÃƒÂ©; someone's got to do it," Grubbs says. "It's either going to be Aunt Sally cleaning up the mess or it's going to be someone that you're going to hire to do it. And in Arkansas, we are the only company certified to do this." You're probably wondering exactly what they do? Here's where it gets tough: they clean up things from brain matter to large pools of blood. Sgt. Terry Hastings of the Little Rock Police Department says shows like CSI and others are not accurate in the way crime scene investigation go. Hastings says, "It would be nice if it was that way, but crime investigation in the United States and even around the world, we're looking at evidence. I don't know of any agency that actually cleans up a crime scene other than a company you hire. Grubbs says knowing what you're getting into is just as important as how you clean it up. "We want to know how many rooms are involved, was it a shooting, a stabbing, a natural death with decomposition. We want to know exactly what happened. We'll take in a bio-hazard box, because all hazardous waste has to go to an incineration facility," Grubbs explains. "Of course, we'll have to use bio-hazard bags which go in the boxes. Then, once full, they get sealed tape shut. We've got thin suits, which are hot. We've got these thick Pozy-wear suits, which are really thick, they're hotter." Grubbs says, "We'll get suited up, we'll get in there, generally start from the top down. There's no point in cleaning up the floor until after I've got the ceiling scraped off." To do this type of work, Grubbs says he took a 40-hour class for training, with both classroom time and hands-on experience. He then had to be trained for OSHA regulations. "OSHA has, of course, occupational safety and hazards, has guidelines you have to follow. There's a paper trail and then, of course, there's the physical stuff like the PPE, personal protection equipment, that you have to provide to your employees," says Grubbs. Grubbs coverage area is roughly Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi to Louisiana. He says this industry is largely unregulated across the country except for Louisiana. Grubbs says his work may seem distasteful, but he says he is providing a service. One he would rather do than a family member of the deceased. Grubbs says since he's been in the business, he mostly works on suicides, natural deaths and then crime scene incidents. He says 90 percent of the victims are men. http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=92281

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries