Cleaning Up the Smell of Death

Soldiers know it.

So do police officers.

And paramedics.

What is it?

The smell of death.

There's nothing else like it.

And it's the hardest thing to deal with, especially when you make a living cleaning up after death.

Marshall Mulloy, the owner of Paul Davis Restoration in the Philadelphia suburbs knows the smell well.

"It's hard to cope with death and it's a depressing thing to have to go in after a suicide or homicide or even a natural death," he says. "The odor of the aftermath is something you don't forget."

Mulloy says his company has cleaned just about everything, including vehicles.

"I've even done cars that were totaled after a deer went through the windshield," he says. "We've had guys that shot themselves in the head in their car and have cleaned it up for auction."

It takes about 8 hours for the initial visit on a job, according to Malloy.

"But when you get involved with deodorizing an apartment in a building, that takes more visits," he adds. "It typically costs hundreds of dollars for a job. But it could go into the thousands depending on the complexity.

"I like it, but I guess I'm a little dark," Mulloy says of the work. "It's challenging to be able to do what it takes to get it done right. It's physically and emotionally challenging."

Mulloy is part of a growing cadre of businessmen nationwide who are in the business of cleaning up after death.

The business started booming in the mid- to late-1990s as people became more aware of AIDS and other bloodborne diseases, says Eric Orsag, director of the Biological Division of the Cardinal Group in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

"I got involved with hazardous waste and biological waste in 1987," Orsag says. "I first dealt with chemicals and pharmaceuticals during the 1990s and after 1995 started working with biological waste. In this business you're constantly learning so it's never stagnant."

This is a needed service, says Edwin Zook, manager of Bio-Team Mobile in Willow Street, Pennsylvania, who worked construction before moving to crime scene cleanup four years ago. "When you have a suicide in your house, most people don't know where to turn," he explains. "We saw a need for this service and started offering it."

This type of service can be needed just about anywhere, he adds. The most unusual case Zook says he's had occurred about six months ago when he was dispatched to clean a tree in a public park in York, Pennsylvania, after a man committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

"This gentleman had leaned up against the tree and shot himself," he recalls. "We scrubbed down the tree and shoveled up brain matter from the ground."

The business of post-death cleaning is also competitive.

Companies specializing in this kind of service don't need to advertise to the public and may not even be listed in telephone books. They say their business comes through the Internet and referrals from police, paramedics, funeral homes and coroners' offices.

The Reading (Pennsylvania) Police Department, which regularly handles more than a dozen homicides a year and scores of suicides and natural deaths, has come to rely on crime scene cleanup crews. The department also uses such companies to dispose of needles, drugs, rape kits, bloody clothes and other items.

Scott Naugle, an evidence technician with the Reading PD, has collected more than a half-dozen business cards from companies in the Philadelphia suburbs that deal with messy clean ups, and provides these names to homeowners or tenants as needed.

"I usually talk to the home owner or tenant about the clean up when we get ready to release a crime scene," Naugle says. "But people can do what they want. I've seen people go into a house and get a mop and bleach and do the clean up themselves."

"You need to have a stomach for this kind of work," says Deborah Schlarb, president of Environmental Options, a division of the Cardinal Group based in Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania. The company not only cleans crime scenes, but also disposes of blood-contaminated waste from hospitals, police departments and other trauma cleaning companies. Environmental Options is also licensed by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to transport and dispose of drugs.

"Suicides are usually the biggest mess in an individual home," Naugle explains. "Anything that's outside is usually handled by the fire company; they bleach over the blood and hose it down. But inside the home, the normal person would be overwhelmed. It's just an unbelievable mess. It's not like cleaning your kitchen for the holidays. It's a needed service."

Todd Iaeger, fire marshal at the Reading Fire Department, says he has seen his fair share of smelly messes. But there's nothing, he says, like the smell of a decaying human body.

Iaeger, who was a firefighter for many years before becoming the fire marshal, recalls one assignment where firefighters found a body that had been in a closed-up house for several days in the summer heat.

"We were all around the corner a half block down, the smell was so overwhelming," Iaeger remembers. "I don't care how many fans you put in a house. There's no smell as bad as that."

Sgt. Mark Talbot of the Reading PD's criminal investigations division agrees.

"You couldn't pay me enough to do that kind of work," he says.

"It stays with you for days," David Frees, owner of Radical Restorations of Shillington, Pennsylvania, says of the smell.

People in this line of work say they don't often share stories of their workday with friends or family.

"It's a job, and not something that I discuss with most people," Frees says. "Most people don't want to hear about it anyway. There never really seems to be an appropriate time to discuss it."

But Frees and others say they like the work because it is always interesting and each death scene is different.

"I wouldn't say that I enjoy it," says Frees, who also does traditional remodeling work and cleans up after fires and flooding. "It's a job that has to get done and it's a service we provide to people."

He says he's always eager to get another remodeling job, but he doesn't really look forward to receiving the death cleanup calls.

"I have a family and I've got to feed them; it's just one thing that pays the bills," he says.

Whether it's a suicidal shotgun blast to the head or a quiet death in a stuffy apartment, the clean up is seldom quick or easy. It's not a job for the faint of heart. It takes special training and gear.

A typical job takes a team of three technicians in protective suits approximately 8 hours and can cost $1,000 to $3,000. Homeowner's insurance almost always covers the bill, officials say.

It's not just a matter of mopping up blood and spraying Lysol around either. Anything touched by blood must be physically removed from the building and destroyed, often requiring floorboards to be ripped up and walls to be removed. And it can take a week to air out a large apartment building. At Environmental Options, Schlarb says some of the contaminated material — such as blood-soaked bedding, carpeting or drywall — that is not evidence is treated with steam at Stericycle Inc. in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, and then taken to a landfill, but evidence items are hauled to Phoenix Services in Baltimore, Maryland, and must be incinerated.

Zook says families or regular cleaning companies used to handle suicides and other messy deaths. But now, workers must have training in hazardous materials handling to do the job, says Zook, who's certified by the American Bio-Recovery Association,

All companies require certification and training in handling blood. They also have to write a booklet for the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection and offer hepatitis shots to employees who handle blood. Heavy-duty chemicals and know-how also comes in handy.

Some companies even keep counselors on retainer to help workers cope with the devastation of death. Environmental Options, for instance, offers counseling services to employees who must work with death and decay. "It's very traumatic work," explains Schlarb, who says she routinely goes out to crime scene clean ups to help her charges with the dirty work.

Some companies don't take new employees to these types of jobs immediately. "At first new employees just come out to assist," Orsag says, noting new Cardinal Group employees are required to work at least a year on routine clean-up jobs before they can be sent out to a murder scene. This is rarely a problem, he adds. "We don't have a lot of turnover so we don't have to search for people with the stomach for this kind of work."

Orsag says dealing with death is all about your mindset and your training. "It's not something where you lose your humanity," he says. "But you approach it as a project and try to eliminate the emotional factors.

"A lot of how I handle and cope with the job has to do with how much training I have," he adds. "I've never had to deal with someone I knew. I wouldn't push myself that far."

Zook recalls the worst scene he ever encountered occurred approximately three years ago and involved a gentleman who lived alone whose body wasn't discovered for two weeks after he died. "We had maggots and body fluid in the carpet," he remembers. "It smelled terrible. I won't go in without a respirator. The visuals don't bother me as much as the smell. We had to take out the carpet and came back to install another one. Even though I knew the place was clean it was hard to go back there."

Zook says that after three days all the blood goes to the lowest point in the body. A day or two after that the skin stops holding in the liquid. After two weeks, a body starts to fill with gasses and breaks apart.

This type of environment presents hazards to those who enter, and they must protect themselves accordingly.

Workers who handle blood must receive a battery of shots to protect them against diseases, including hepatitis. Rubber gloves and boots are often layered to prevent any exposure to dangerous pathogens. Splash-proof goggles also are necessary. Respirators with organic filters and oxygen tanks are used because viruses can spread through the air until the blood is completely dry, Schlarb adds.

Cleaning up after death can be a messy, dirty and smelly business, but wiping out the smell of death is a needed service that many companies are willing to provide.