Another Shooting on Parade Place
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Police are investigating the shooting death of a 23 year old man on Parade Place last night.
The NYPD responded to a report of shots fired outside 45 Parade Place, near the corner of Crooke Avenue, an NYPD spokesman, Officer James Duffy, told me.
They found Julio Locarno, 23, lying in a pathway leading into the Parade Grounds with “several gunshot wounds to his head and torso,” Duffy said. Locarno was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.
There have been no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, Duffy said.
A livery cab driver was shot dead in almost exactly the same spot last June, and neighbors have been loudly requesting police presence, signage, lights, or anything else that could deter crime there for many months.
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NOTE-The owners of Bio-Recovery Corporation have reached out to these people and have offered to clean this scene for no cost.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, September 17, 2010
Bio-Tec Emergency Services
I found a national Crime Scene Clean up company online that appeared to be legitimate last year. I paid over 1,200 dollars for supplies and Crime Scene Tech,"Certification."Once this was done I was called out to a home in Griffin, Ga. for a clean up a trailer. The job lasted about six hours. I made sure all the required paperwork was completed and sent to BIO TEC after the job. I never met anyone in person and spoke to several people on the phone. After the job I was told it could take up to two months to be paid. The agreement was $50 dollars an hour. My phone calls were repeatedly ignored after the two month mark.
I decided to call from a different phone number and someone answered. A female answered and refused to give an explanation for lack of payment and extended time frame. She was rude and made it clear I would not get paid. I realized at that point what I was dealing with. I also took pictures of a home in Douglas ville Ga. that had water damage and sent the pictures on disc to BIO TEC with my own money and received nothing for that as well. BIO TEC is parading around as a legitimate company that helps people in need and could be deceiving not only the customers but employees as well and must be investigated. It is my responsibility to at least stop them from taking advantage of customers whom are already dealing with traumatic situations.
Andrea of acworth, GA
Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/business/bio_tec_emergency_services.html#ixzz0zprTwozd
I decided to call from a different phone number and someone answered. A female answered and refused to give an explanation for lack of payment and extended time frame. She was rude and made it clear I would not get paid. I realized at that point what I was dealing with. I also took pictures of a home in Douglas ville Ga. that had water damage and sent the pictures on disc to BIO TEC with my own money and received nothing for that as well. BIO TEC is parading around as a legitimate company that helps people in need and could be deceiving not only the customers but employees as well and must be investigated. It is my responsibility to at least stop them from taking advantage of customers whom are already dealing with traumatic situations.
Andrea of acworth, GA
Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/business/bio_tec_emergency_services.html#ixzz0zprTwozd
Friday, July 30, 2010
Cleaning the Scene
After crimes, local business moves in to help restore people’s homes
As a longtime police detective, Virgil Hutchinson has spent countless hours investigating crime scenes. While his current police work keeps him confined to his desk for most of the day, Hutchinson spends even more time at crime scenes handling his second job: trauma scene cleanup.
“You wouldn’t believe the scenes we go through. I mean the scenes that happen,” Hutchinson said as his eyes widened to recount the memories. “It’s tough on the family so you need someone that could first of all know how to deal with stressful situations like this.”
Hutchinson is very cautious when speaking about his experiences cleaning up crime scenes because he said privacy is the most important thing he can provide to the people he helps. A 23-year veteran of the Syracuse Police Department, he often sounds like a psychologist when speaking of the effects a crime scene can have on victims’ families.
He remembers a time when he responded to a family who had just experienced a violent crime in the home. The family wanted Hutchinson to clean up the blood.
“That’s where we came in,” said Hutchinson, CEO of B-D Trauma Scene Clean, Inc. “We disposed of everything the right way and gave them their privacy.”
Inspiration for the name of Hutchinson’s business comes from his father’s nickname, B-D. The name has special meaning to Hutchinson, whose father died of lung disease. The idea to start a company came through his police work before he became a detective.
“I would often hear people say, ‘so when do you come back and clean this place up?’” Hutchinson said. “And so I did some research.”
Hutchinson was the first tenant to house his business in the South Side Innovation Center. He said he chose the space on South Salina Street because of his concern for the city in which he was raised.
Cleaning crime scenes is something that Hutchinson takes seriously and personally. That’s one reason he is hesitant to divulge too many details of his experiences.
“We don’t come to the house with this big van that says, ‘We clean crime scenes’ or anything of that sort,” Hutchinson said. “There’s psychological effects that go with that.”
Hutchinson said the sight of some crime scenes is sometimes hard to grasp and often takes a toll on him mentally. For that reason, he said finding people to employ is often difficult. He said he must be very selective and can tell within a few minutes during an interview whether a person has the stomach for the job.
Crime scene cleaning is just one of the jobs he and his employees provide. Some other features of B-D Trauma Scene Clean are biohazard cleaning, floor care, restoration after mold damage, and selling supplies to other companies.
Hutchinson remembers when he and his crew had to restore a house because water damage led to mold spreading throughout the whole property.
“We gutted the whole thing,” Hutchinson said. “We disinfected, sterilized and placed antimicrobial agents in the house.”
Whatever the situation, Hutchinson and his employees must dispose of materials “the right way,” he said.
“It needs to be autoclaved,” Hutchinson said, which means disposing of any remnants through a machine rather than in a large trash bin. Otherwise, he said, there is a risk of mold, hepatitis, or pathogens traveling through the air and infecting people.
“You really have to want to feel good about helping people, and that’s a lot of where my background in police work comes in,” Hutchinson said. “It’s that good feeling you get at the end of the day.”
As a longtime police detective, Virgil Hutchinson has spent countless hours investigating crime scenes. While his current police work keeps him confined to his desk for most of the day, Hutchinson spends even more time at crime scenes handling his second job: trauma scene cleanup.
“You wouldn’t believe the scenes we go through. I mean the scenes that happen,” Hutchinson said as his eyes widened to recount the memories. “It’s tough on the family so you need someone that could first of all know how to deal with stressful situations like this.”
Hutchinson is very cautious when speaking about his experiences cleaning up crime scenes because he said privacy is the most important thing he can provide to the people he helps. A 23-year veteran of the Syracuse Police Department, he often sounds like a psychologist when speaking of the effects a crime scene can have on victims’ families.
He remembers a time when he responded to a family who had just experienced a violent crime in the home. The family wanted Hutchinson to clean up the blood.
“That’s where we came in,” said Hutchinson, CEO of B-D Trauma Scene Clean, Inc. “We disposed of everything the right way and gave them their privacy.”
Inspiration for the name of Hutchinson’s business comes from his father’s nickname, B-D. The name has special meaning to Hutchinson, whose father died of lung disease. The idea to start a company came through his police work before he became a detective.
“I would often hear people say, ‘so when do you come back and clean this place up?’” Hutchinson said. “And so I did some research.”
Hutchinson was the first tenant to house his business in the South Side Innovation Center. He said he chose the space on South Salina Street because of his concern for the city in which he was raised.
Cleaning crime scenes is something that Hutchinson takes seriously and personally. That’s one reason he is hesitant to divulge too many details of his experiences.
“We don’t come to the house with this big van that says, ‘We clean crime scenes’ or anything of that sort,” Hutchinson said. “There’s psychological effects that go with that.”
Hutchinson said the sight of some crime scenes is sometimes hard to grasp and often takes a toll on him mentally. For that reason, he said finding people to employ is often difficult. He said he must be very selective and can tell within a few minutes during an interview whether a person has the stomach for the job.
Crime scene cleaning is just one of the jobs he and his employees provide. Some other features of B-D Trauma Scene Clean are biohazard cleaning, floor care, restoration after mold damage, and selling supplies to other companies.
Hutchinson remembers when he and his crew had to restore a house because water damage led to mold spreading throughout the whole property.
“We gutted the whole thing,” Hutchinson said. “We disinfected, sterilized and placed antimicrobial agents in the house.”
Whatever the situation, Hutchinson and his employees must dispose of materials “the right way,” he said.
“It needs to be autoclaved,” Hutchinson said, which means disposing of any remnants through a machine rather than in a large trash bin. Otherwise, he said, there is a risk of mold, hepatitis, or pathogens traveling through the air and infecting people.
“You really have to want to feel good about helping people, and that’s a lot of where my background in police work comes in,” Hutchinson said. “It’s that good feeling you get at the end of the day.”
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Bio-Recovery: The R&R Interview
by Jeffrey Stouffer editor
July 19, 2010
A continually evolving and expanding segment of the remediation industry, bio-recovery – better known as “crime scene cleanup” or “trauma cleaning” – has made great strides since it first came into being as an organized segment of the business almost two decades ago. Recently, R&R spoke with Kent Berg, director of the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists and founder of the American Bio-Recovery Association, to get his take on where the industry stands today and where it’s headed in the future.
Restoration & Remediation: Briefly, what falls under the scope of work when people talk about “bio-recovery”?
Kent Berg: Bio-recovery is actually a term that was derived from the words BioHazard Cleanup and Scene Recovery. We chose that term because our industry’s scope of work is actually much broader than cleaning crime scenes. We are often thought of as the guys that will clean up anything that is nasty, repulsive, or gross, so people naturally call us to clean up human feces, animal feces, dead animals – usually rotten ones – and gross filth, as in rotting food, poor hygiene, and piles and piles of garbage. Then there’s the decomposed human body scenes, meth labs, the occasional disease outbreak, and anything else that would cause a normal person to stay a hundred feet away to keep from puking.
R&R: You’ve been part of the bio-recovery profession pretty much since before it became a profession. Since that time, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen, both positive and negative?
KB: When I first started, very few people in this business knew anything about cleaning and disinfecting. They just wanted to make the visible contamination go away. No one in the insurance industry had ever heard of a crime scene cleanup company, and many adjusters argued that our services were not covered. Today, the biggest changes have been in our profile. What I mean by that is the public, who had never heard of our services, now see us in TV shows, documentaries, movies, magazines, and newspaper articles. We have recognition now, and families are more aware that these services exist.
Another change has been in the performance of the cleanup itself. We as an industry are much more aware of the antimicrobials we are using, the techniques and knowledge related to home construction, vehicle dismantling, and being able to actually render a property safe on a microscopic level.
R&R: From a purely objective point of view, bio-recovery would seem to be about as “recession-proof” as any remediation specialty out there. There will always be accidents, suicides and other traumas that require a professional remediator. What are some of the pros and cons that come along with that?
KB: We know that our services will always be needed, but with a higher profile, we are seeing more and more companies starting up, and more and more fire/water restoration companies adding this service to their menus. Although the demand for our services is increasing, the individual companies’ call volumes aren’t growing as fast because there is more competition for that finite number of incidents.
The pros are that the public will have resources to respond if they need them, and that companies will have to step up their game in service quality and marketing. The cons are that the majority of these new companies are not attending training, not getting any type of certification beyond a half-day OSHA bloodborne pathogen course. It’s these companies that are dragging the good companies down when the public hears about a company throwing a bloody mattress in a dumpster, etc.
R&R: Since hindsight is 20/20, if there was one thing you would go back and change, as far as how you operated your business, what is it, and what would you do differently?
KB: I would have marketed harder. I assumed that people would need my service and seek me out. That was true for a while, but when competitors popped up with their marketing programs, the public chose who was freshest in their minds. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but one I will never forget.
R&R: Technologically speaking, what areas have seen the greatest advances? Chemicals? PPE? Containment?
KB: One of the advancements has been our recognition as a legitimate industry. Today, vendors of specialty restoration products are targeting our industry. Kimberly-Clark markets their suits with the “Recommended by the American Bio-Recovery Association” seal on them. Other products used in our industry have similar tie-ins with our trade association or at the very least mention in their advertising that their product is great for cleaning crime and trauma scenes. Even the insurance industry no longer recognizes us under their “janitorial service” heading, opting now for a “crime scene cleanup” designation for insurance coverage.
We are also seeing new technology in the form of new disinfectants, odor-remediation technology, and devices to actually measure how clean a surface really is. The National Organization for Victim Assistance is putting on a training program this fall for teaching all interested bio-recovery technicians how to better interact with victims and their families. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has sought out input so they may better understand our industry.
However, I believe the most important advancement for the industry has been the formation of training centers. Legitimate training programs help make sure that any technician who wants to be the best at their profession can attend a school that specializes in that field. By establishing a standard training and certification program, students graduate far ahead of their competitors and benefit from years of experience from seasoned industry professionals, scientists, chemists, and pathologists that helped to design the curriculum.
Jeffrey Stouffer editor
stoufferj@bnpmedia.com
Jeffrey Stouffer is editor of Restoration & Remediation magazine
July 19, 2010
A continually evolving and expanding segment of the remediation industry, bio-recovery – better known as “crime scene cleanup” or “trauma cleaning” – has made great strides since it first came into being as an organized segment of the business almost two decades ago. Recently, R&R spoke with Kent Berg, director of the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists and founder of the American Bio-Recovery Association, to get his take on where the industry stands today and where it’s headed in the future.
Restoration & Remediation: Briefly, what falls under the scope of work when people talk about “bio-recovery”?
Kent Berg: Bio-recovery is actually a term that was derived from the words BioHazard Cleanup and Scene Recovery. We chose that term because our industry’s scope of work is actually much broader than cleaning crime scenes. We are often thought of as the guys that will clean up anything that is nasty, repulsive, or gross, so people naturally call us to clean up human feces, animal feces, dead animals – usually rotten ones – and gross filth, as in rotting food, poor hygiene, and piles and piles of garbage. Then there’s the decomposed human body scenes, meth labs, the occasional disease outbreak, and anything else that would cause a normal person to stay a hundred feet away to keep from puking.
R&R: You’ve been part of the bio-recovery profession pretty much since before it became a profession. Since that time, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen, both positive and negative?
KB: When I first started, very few people in this business knew anything about cleaning and disinfecting. They just wanted to make the visible contamination go away. No one in the insurance industry had ever heard of a crime scene cleanup company, and many adjusters argued that our services were not covered. Today, the biggest changes have been in our profile. What I mean by that is the public, who had never heard of our services, now see us in TV shows, documentaries, movies, magazines, and newspaper articles. We have recognition now, and families are more aware that these services exist.
Another change has been in the performance of the cleanup itself. We as an industry are much more aware of the antimicrobials we are using, the techniques and knowledge related to home construction, vehicle dismantling, and being able to actually render a property safe on a microscopic level.
R&R: From a purely objective point of view, bio-recovery would seem to be about as “recession-proof” as any remediation specialty out there. There will always be accidents, suicides and other traumas that require a professional remediator. What are some of the pros and cons that come along with that?
KB: We know that our services will always be needed, but with a higher profile, we are seeing more and more companies starting up, and more and more fire/water restoration companies adding this service to their menus. Although the demand for our services is increasing, the individual companies’ call volumes aren’t growing as fast because there is more competition for that finite number of incidents.
The pros are that the public will have resources to respond if they need them, and that companies will have to step up their game in service quality and marketing. The cons are that the majority of these new companies are not attending training, not getting any type of certification beyond a half-day OSHA bloodborne pathogen course. It’s these companies that are dragging the good companies down when the public hears about a company throwing a bloody mattress in a dumpster, etc.
R&R: Since hindsight is 20/20, if there was one thing you would go back and change, as far as how you operated your business, what is it, and what would you do differently?
KB: I would have marketed harder. I assumed that people would need my service and seek me out. That was true for a while, but when competitors popped up with their marketing programs, the public chose who was freshest in their minds. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but one I will never forget.
R&R: Technologically speaking, what areas have seen the greatest advances? Chemicals? PPE? Containment?
KB: One of the advancements has been our recognition as a legitimate industry. Today, vendors of specialty restoration products are targeting our industry. Kimberly-Clark markets their suits with the “Recommended by the American Bio-Recovery Association” seal on them. Other products used in our industry have similar tie-ins with our trade association or at the very least mention in their advertising that their product is great for cleaning crime and trauma scenes. Even the insurance industry no longer recognizes us under their “janitorial service” heading, opting now for a “crime scene cleanup” designation for insurance coverage.
We are also seeing new technology in the form of new disinfectants, odor-remediation technology, and devices to actually measure how clean a surface really is. The National Organization for Victim Assistance is putting on a training program this fall for teaching all interested bio-recovery technicians how to better interact with victims and their families. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has sought out input so they may better understand our industry.
However, I believe the most important advancement for the industry has been the formation of training centers. Legitimate training programs help make sure that any technician who wants to be the best at their profession can attend a school that specializes in that field. By establishing a standard training and certification program, students graduate far ahead of their competitors and benefit from years of experience from seasoned industry professionals, scientists, chemists, and pathologists that helped to design the curriculum.
Jeffrey Stouffer editor
stoufferj@bnpmedia.com
Jeffrey Stouffer is editor of Restoration & Remediation magazine
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Murder-Suicide on the rise nationwide
In less than a week there has been a rise in cases of murder suicide. Nationwide there's reports of murder suicides, where the people had either made an attempt to kill their family then themselves, or successfully committed the act.
What drives a person to want to kill themselves and their family?
Is it the stress from the plummeted economy?
Whatever the case may be, in the pass four-days this has been the case. In Michigan alone there's been three cases involving people that killed their family and then themselves. The most recent killing involved a South Lyon mother who gave her 13- year-old daughter prescription drugs, killing the child and then the mother tried to kill herself. The mother survived and is in critical condition at a local hospital.
Questions surfaced whether the mother was stressed about caring for the girl because the teenager suffered from mental disabilities and health problems. Police say on two recent occasions the teen became violent, by assaulted her mother.
Michigan
In another Michigan story, a mother shot her 14 year-old daughter in the back, then turned the gun on herself. In this case the mother didn't survive, but the child did.
Texas
In Texas, a mayor of a Dallas suburb killed her teen daughter before turning the gun on herself, according to the county medical examiner. Police found the bodies of Jayne Peters, 55, and her 19-year-old daughter Corrine at their home after being sent to investigate the Coppell mayor's absence from a council meeting. Police found notes throughout the house, none of the notes explained what led to the shootings – only instructions about the care of the family pets. Two dogs were also found in the house.
California
In California, a horrific scene was discovered when a co-worker of a man went to his house only to find that the man had shot his wife and 3 year-old son. The child hid himself inside a trash dumpster for 12 hours until police discovered him there. The police found the boy bleeding from 3 gunshot wounds to his shoulder, stomach and chest. His parents were found dead on lawn chairs outside the Anaheim home, and his uninjured 5-year-old brother was hiding elsewhere in the house. The older boy told police he could hear his baby brother "screaming and hollering," but didn't know where he was.
A friend said the family had financial problems. Police are continuing to investigate. "It's very difficult to determine a motive for killing your own kids," the police spokesman said. In another case, a 58-year-old woman and 81-year-old man were found dead in a San Rafael hotel Saturday afternoon in an apparent murder-suicide.
Chicago
A man identified as Eugene Robertson, 27, walked into a Old Navy store and shot and killed, Tranesha Palms in her 20s. According to reports from the Chicago Tribune, the couple lived together in an apartment in the 10200 block of South Walden Parkway in the Beverly neighborhood on the South Side.
A police said that the two arrived at the store at the same time, the gunman followed his girlfriend through a State Street door that led to the restricted area for employees. Once inside, the shooting happened quickly, with no signs of a prolonged fight or struggle.
Connecticut
A man and a women were shot to death in a car late Sunday morning in what police believe is a murder-suicide. The shooting happened in the Rite Aid parking lot on Hazard Avenue. When police arrived they found the two slumped over in the car, both people suffering from bullet wounds.The pair was rushed to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by ambulance, and later died. The couple drove in separate cars and met in the parking lot. Police are still investigating to find out what led to the killing.
Georgia
Matthew Justice, 37, his wife Amy, 36, two children ages 14 and 11 years-old were discovered shot. The man apparently shot his family and turned the gun on himself. The 14-year-old male was transported to Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan where he remains in critical condition, the 11 year-old female who was also taken to the same medical center, got treated and released.
A shooting in Augusta, Georgia left one dead and one injured.
What drives a person to want to kill themselves and their family?
Is it the stress from the plummeted economy?
Whatever the case may be, in the pass four-days this has been the case. In Michigan alone there's been three cases involving people that killed their family and then themselves. The most recent killing involved a South Lyon mother who gave her 13- year-old daughter prescription drugs, killing the child and then the mother tried to kill herself. The mother survived and is in critical condition at a local hospital.
Questions surfaced whether the mother was stressed about caring for the girl because the teenager suffered from mental disabilities and health problems. Police say on two recent occasions the teen became violent, by assaulted her mother.
Michigan
In another Michigan story, a mother shot her 14 year-old daughter in the back, then turned the gun on herself. In this case the mother didn't survive, but the child did.
Texas
In Texas, a mayor of a Dallas suburb killed her teen daughter before turning the gun on herself, according to the county medical examiner. Police found the bodies of Jayne Peters, 55, and her 19-year-old daughter Corrine at their home after being sent to investigate the Coppell mayor's absence from a council meeting. Police found notes throughout the house, none of the notes explained what led to the shootings – only instructions about the care of the family pets. Two dogs were also found in the house.
California
In California, a horrific scene was discovered when a co-worker of a man went to his house only to find that the man had shot his wife and 3 year-old son. The child hid himself inside a trash dumpster for 12 hours until police discovered him there. The police found the boy bleeding from 3 gunshot wounds to his shoulder, stomach and chest. His parents were found dead on lawn chairs outside the Anaheim home, and his uninjured 5-year-old brother was hiding elsewhere in the house. The older boy told police he could hear his baby brother "screaming and hollering," but didn't know where he was.
A friend said the family had financial problems. Police are continuing to investigate. "It's very difficult to determine a motive for killing your own kids," the police spokesman said. In another case, a 58-year-old woman and 81-year-old man were found dead in a San Rafael hotel Saturday afternoon in an apparent murder-suicide.
Chicago
A man identified as Eugene Robertson, 27, walked into a Old Navy store and shot and killed, Tranesha Palms in her 20s. According to reports from the Chicago Tribune, the couple lived together in an apartment in the 10200 block of South Walden Parkway in the Beverly neighborhood on the South Side.
A police said that the two arrived at the store at the same time, the gunman followed his girlfriend through a State Street door that led to the restricted area for employees. Once inside, the shooting happened quickly, with no signs of a prolonged fight or struggle.
Connecticut
A man and a women were shot to death in a car late Sunday morning in what police believe is a murder-suicide. The shooting happened in the Rite Aid parking lot on Hazard Avenue. When police arrived they found the two slumped over in the car, both people suffering from bullet wounds.The pair was rushed to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by ambulance, and later died. The couple drove in separate cars and met in the parking lot. Police are still investigating to find out what led to the killing.
Georgia
Matthew Justice, 37, his wife Amy, 36, two children ages 14 and 11 years-old were discovered shot. The man apparently shot his family and turned the gun on himself. The 14-year-old male was transported to Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan where he remains in critical condition, the 11 year-old female who was also taken to the same medical center, got treated and released.
A shooting in Augusta, Georgia left one dead and one injured.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
GROWING OLD ALONE Cleanup after unnoticed death now a growing industry
By MIZUHO AOKI
Yoshinori Ishimi could hear a high-pitched whine coming from the apartment in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, he was about to enter. When he went inside, he saw black "mini-twister" clouds of flies.
The last tenant had been a 60-year-old divorced man whose body was not found until a month after he had died.
"Every time I encounter such scenes, I hesitate to step inside. But someone has to clean up these flats . . . and be professional about it," said Ishimi of Anshin Net, a cleaning service that is part of R-Cube Co. in Ota Ward, Tokyo.
The Nerima man's case was not unique, and such unnoticed departures are only expected to increase.
According to a report by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the number of single-person households is expected to rise from 14.46 million in 2005 to 18.24 million in 2030, or nearly 40 percent of all households.
With the growing number of single households in this graying nation, businesses specializing in dealing in what has been dubbed "lonely death" have become a fixture.
Anshin Net is one such example.
Founded in 2004, the company handles about 450 requests a year, about half of them dealing with cleaning out dwellings after the occupant has died.
The requests generally come from close relatives. But when people die alone and their corpses are not discovered for weeks or even months — the requests may also come from landlords, as well as more distant kin, because many people die childless and without a partner, Ishimi said.
"We receive about four to eight requests a month asking us to clean dwellings where the residents were found a week, a month, or, in extreme cases, a year after they passed away," Ishimi said.
Police process solitary deaths by carrying out autopsies and, if relatives can't be traced, municipalities cremate the body and inter the ashes in a shared grave, Ishimi said.
Ishimi and other specialist cleaners come in afterward and make dwellings clean again.
Although no figures are available, with the increasing media coverage about people dying lonely deaths, both the number of people engaged in this business and job requests have surged in the past two or three years, said Atsushi Takaesu, 38, an Okinawan who has run a special cleaning business in Kanagawa Prefecture since 2003.
"I had only about 10 cases a year about seven years ago. But this year, the number is likely to surpass 400. I received about 40 requests this June alone," said Takaesu, who recently published "Jiken Genba Seisonin ga Iku ("Here Comes a Crime Scene Cleaner"), a nonfiction book on his specialty of cleaning housing where people died lonely deaths, including suicides.
Takaesu said he is proud of his job but admits that at times it is heart-wrenching.
Pointing to a picture of a bathtub one-third full of a dark reddish liquid, Takaesu explained: "This is not ramen. This is a dead lady's body fluid and skin. I actually had to step into the bath to clean it."
Apart from the flies, maggots and pupae, crawling, sticking to windows and flying around, there is the hair of the dead, looking like a wig.
Also, bodily fluids and blood soak into tatami mats, and there is the stench of death that many in the business find difficult to totally remove, according to Takaesu.
"It is hard to pick up someone's hair with my own hands, but if you ask me whether I can do it, I can. But the appreciation I get after I clean up those rooms, totally removing the lingering smell of death, is the biggest thing that keeps me going," he said.
Ishimi of Anshin Net said people who die alone often share the same circumstances, and he strongly believes many can avoid this fate by changing their lifestyles.
"Many were men in their 50s or 60s, divorced, and with no job. They had not been in contact with their friends or families and they often were diabetic," Ishimi said, adding that when he goes inside their dwellings he often finds the curtains drawn and piles of empty food boxes from convenience stores, cans or bottles of alcohol, and insulin vials.
"It's sad. And to be honest with you, I ask them (the deceased), 'Why?' Because (in many cases) if they had changed their lifestyle, they could have avoided dying (in the way they did). They shut out the sunlight and fresh air with curtains, and isolated themselves from everyone," Ishimi said.
After seeing so many residences long after the occupant's death, Anshin Net is now shifting its focus on what it calls "welfare cleaning."
About half of the requests the company receives today are from care managers, helpers or sometimes municipalities asking for help cleaning the dwellings of elderly people who live alone and have huge garbage accumulations.
These people call first because they can't enter the elderly person's house unless the waste is removed, or, in some cases, following complaints made to municipalities from neighbors, Ishimi noted.
"In recent years, the number of elderly who live alone buried under a mountain of garbage has surged. Some have dementia and some are physically unable to take out the garbage. It is these people who are the ones most likely to die alone," Ishimi said.
"We want to minimize cases in which elderly people die alone. I believe cleaning their housing will act as a deterrence."
Yoshinori Ishimi could hear a high-pitched whine coming from the apartment in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, he was about to enter. When he went inside, he saw black "mini-twister" clouds of flies.
The last tenant had been a 60-year-old divorced man whose body was not found until a month after he had died.
"Every time I encounter such scenes, I hesitate to step inside. But someone has to clean up these flats . . . and be professional about it," said Ishimi of Anshin Net, a cleaning service that is part of R-Cube Co. in Ota Ward, Tokyo.
The Nerima man's case was not unique, and such unnoticed departures are only expected to increase.
According to a report by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the number of single-person households is expected to rise from 14.46 million in 2005 to 18.24 million in 2030, or nearly 40 percent of all households.
With the growing number of single households in this graying nation, businesses specializing in dealing in what has been dubbed "lonely death" have become a fixture.
Anshin Net is one such example.
Founded in 2004, the company handles about 450 requests a year, about half of them dealing with cleaning out dwellings after the occupant has died.
The requests generally come from close relatives. But when people die alone and their corpses are not discovered for weeks or even months — the requests may also come from landlords, as well as more distant kin, because many people die childless and without a partner, Ishimi said.
"We receive about four to eight requests a month asking us to clean dwellings where the residents were found a week, a month, or, in extreme cases, a year after they passed away," Ishimi said.
Police process solitary deaths by carrying out autopsies and, if relatives can't be traced, municipalities cremate the body and inter the ashes in a shared grave, Ishimi said.
Ishimi and other specialist cleaners come in afterward and make dwellings clean again.
Although no figures are available, with the increasing media coverage about people dying lonely deaths, both the number of people engaged in this business and job requests have surged in the past two or three years, said Atsushi Takaesu, 38, an Okinawan who has run a special cleaning business in Kanagawa Prefecture since 2003.
"I had only about 10 cases a year about seven years ago. But this year, the number is likely to surpass 400. I received about 40 requests this June alone," said Takaesu, who recently published "Jiken Genba Seisonin ga Iku ("Here Comes a Crime Scene Cleaner"), a nonfiction book on his specialty of cleaning housing where people died lonely deaths, including suicides.
Takaesu said he is proud of his job but admits that at times it is heart-wrenching.
Pointing to a picture of a bathtub one-third full of a dark reddish liquid, Takaesu explained: "This is not ramen. This is a dead lady's body fluid and skin. I actually had to step into the bath to clean it."
Apart from the flies, maggots and pupae, crawling, sticking to windows and flying around, there is the hair of the dead, looking like a wig.
Also, bodily fluids and blood soak into tatami mats, and there is the stench of death that many in the business find difficult to totally remove, according to Takaesu.
"It is hard to pick up someone's hair with my own hands, but if you ask me whether I can do it, I can. But the appreciation I get after I clean up those rooms, totally removing the lingering smell of death, is the biggest thing that keeps me going," he said.
Ishimi of Anshin Net said people who die alone often share the same circumstances, and he strongly believes many can avoid this fate by changing their lifestyles.
"Many were men in their 50s or 60s, divorced, and with no job. They had not been in contact with their friends or families and they often were diabetic," Ishimi said, adding that when he goes inside their dwellings he often finds the curtains drawn and piles of empty food boxes from convenience stores, cans or bottles of alcohol, and insulin vials.
"It's sad. And to be honest with you, I ask them (the deceased), 'Why?' Because (in many cases) if they had changed their lifestyle, they could have avoided dying (in the way they did). They shut out the sunlight and fresh air with curtains, and isolated themselves from everyone," Ishimi said.
After seeing so many residences long after the occupant's death, Anshin Net is now shifting its focus on what it calls "welfare cleaning."
About half of the requests the company receives today are from care managers, helpers or sometimes municipalities asking for help cleaning the dwellings of elderly people who live alone and have huge garbage accumulations.
These people call first because they can't enter the elderly person's house unless the waste is removed, or, in some cases, following complaints made to municipalities from neighbors, Ishimi noted.
"In recent years, the number of elderly who live alone buried under a mountain of garbage has surged. Some have dementia and some are physically unable to take out the garbage. It is these people who are the ones most likely to die alone," Ishimi said.
"We want to minimize cases in which elderly people die alone. I believe cleaning their housing will act as a deterrence."
Thursday, June 3, 2010
6 reasons why people commit suicide
by Alex Lickerman, MD
Though I’ve never lost a friend or family member to suicide, I have lost a patient.
I have known a number of people left behind by the suicide of people close to them, however. Given how much losing my patient affected me, I’ve only been able to guess at the devastation these people have experienced. Pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret makes for a bitter drink, the taste of which I’ve seen take many months or even years to wash out of some mouths.
The one question everyone has asked without exception, that they ache to have answered more than any other, is simply, why?
Why did their friend, child, parent, spouse, or sibling take their own life? Even when a note explaining the reasons is found, lingering questions usually remain: yes, they felt enough despair to want to die, but why did they feel that? A person’s suicide often takes the people it leaves behind by surprise (only accentuating survivor’s guilt for failing to see it coming).
People who’ve survived suicide attempts have reported wanting not so much to die as to stop living, a strange dichotomy but a valid one nevertheless. If some in-between state existed, some other alternative to death, I suspect many suicidal people would take it. For the sake of all those reading this who might have been left behind by someone’s suicide, I wanted to describe how I was trained to think about the reasons people kill themselves. They’re not as intuitive as most think.
In general, people try to kill themselves for six reasons:
1. They’re depressed. This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would all be better off without me” to make rational sense. They shouldn’t be blamed for falling prey to such distorted thoughts any more than a heart patient should be blamed for experiencing chest pain: it’s simply the nature of their disease.
Because depression, as we all know, is almost always treatable, we should all seek to recognize its presence in our close friends and loved ones. Often people suffer with it silently, planning suicide without anyone ever knowing. Despite making both parties uncomfortable, inquiring directly about suicidal thoughts in my experience almost always yields an honest response. If you suspect someone might be depressed, don’t allow your tendency to deny the possibility of suicidal ideation prevent you from asking about it.
2. They’re psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression — and arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is 1% and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfill their original promise.
Schizophrenics are just as likely to talk freely about the voices commanding them to kill themselves as not, and also, in my experience, give honest answers about thoughts of suicide when asked directly. Psychosis, too, is treatable, and usually must be for a schizophrenic to be able to function at all. Untreated or poorly treated psychosis almost always requires hospital admission to a locked ward until the voices lose their commanding power.
3. They’re impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is usually genuine, and whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime. Hospital admission is therefore not usually indicated. Substance abuse and the underlying reasons for it are generally a greater concern in these people and should be addressed as aggressively as possible.
4. They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don’t believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don’t think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who’s hurt them—but are sometimes tragically misinformed. The prototypical example of this is a young teenage girl suffering genuine angst because of a relationship, either with a friend, boyfriend, or parent who swallows a bottle of Tylenol—not realizing that in high enough doses Tylenol causes irreversible liver damage.
I’ve watched more than one teenager die a horrible death in an ICU days after such an ingestion when remorse has already cured them of their desire to die and their true goal of alerting those close to them of their distress has been achieved.
5. They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death. They often look at their choice to commit suicide as a way to shorten a dying that will happen regardless. In my personal view, if such people are evaluated by a qualified professional who can reliably exclude the other possibilities for why suicide is desired, these people should be allowed to die at their own hands.
6. They’ve made a mistake. This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defense against this, it seems to me, is education.
The wounds suicide leaves in the lives of those left behind by it are often deep and long lasting. The apparent senselessness of suicide often fuels the most significant pain survivors feel. Thinking we all deal better with tragedy when we understand its underpinnings, I’ve offered the preceding paragraphs in hopes that anyone reading this who’s been left behind by a suicide might be able to more easily find a way to move on, to relinquish their guilt and anger, and find closure. Despite the abrupt way you may have been left, those don’t have to be the only two emotions you’re doomed to feel about the one who left you.
Alex Lickerman is an internal medicine physician at the University of Chicago who blogs at Happiness in this World.
Though I’ve never lost a friend or family member to suicide, I have lost a patient.
I have known a number of people left behind by the suicide of people close to them, however. Given how much losing my patient affected me, I’ve only been able to guess at the devastation these people have experienced. Pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret makes for a bitter drink, the taste of which I’ve seen take many months or even years to wash out of some mouths.
The one question everyone has asked without exception, that they ache to have answered more than any other, is simply, why?
Why did their friend, child, parent, spouse, or sibling take their own life? Even when a note explaining the reasons is found, lingering questions usually remain: yes, they felt enough despair to want to die, but why did they feel that? A person’s suicide often takes the people it leaves behind by surprise (only accentuating survivor’s guilt for failing to see it coming).
People who’ve survived suicide attempts have reported wanting not so much to die as to stop living, a strange dichotomy but a valid one nevertheless. If some in-between state existed, some other alternative to death, I suspect many suicidal people would take it. For the sake of all those reading this who might have been left behind by someone’s suicide, I wanted to describe how I was trained to think about the reasons people kill themselves. They’re not as intuitive as most think.
In general, people try to kill themselves for six reasons:
1. They’re depressed. This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would all be better off without me” to make rational sense. They shouldn’t be blamed for falling prey to such distorted thoughts any more than a heart patient should be blamed for experiencing chest pain: it’s simply the nature of their disease.
Because depression, as we all know, is almost always treatable, we should all seek to recognize its presence in our close friends and loved ones. Often people suffer with it silently, planning suicide without anyone ever knowing. Despite making both parties uncomfortable, inquiring directly about suicidal thoughts in my experience almost always yields an honest response. If you suspect someone might be depressed, don’t allow your tendency to deny the possibility of suicidal ideation prevent you from asking about it.
2. They’re psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression — and arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is 1% and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfill their original promise.
Schizophrenics are just as likely to talk freely about the voices commanding them to kill themselves as not, and also, in my experience, give honest answers about thoughts of suicide when asked directly. Psychosis, too, is treatable, and usually must be for a schizophrenic to be able to function at all. Untreated or poorly treated psychosis almost always requires hospital admission to a locked ward until the voices lose their commanding power.
3. They’re impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is usually genuine, and whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime. Hospital admission is therefore not usually indicated. Substance abuse and the underlying reasons for it are generally a greater concern in these people and should be addressed as aggressively as possible.
4. They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don’t believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don’t think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who’s hurt them—but are sometimes tragically misinformed. The prototypical example of this is a young teenage girl suffering genuine angst because of a relationship, either with a friend, boyfriend, or parent who swallows a bottle of Tylenol—not realizing that in high enough doses Tylenol causes irreversible liver damage.
I’ve watched more than one teenager die a horrible death in an ICU days after such an ingestion when remorse has already cured them of their desire to die and their true goal of alerting those close to them of their distress has been achieved.
5. They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death. They often look at their choice to commit suicide as a way to shorten a dying that will happen regardless. In my personal view, if such people are evaluated by a qualified professional who can reliably exclude the other possibilities for why suicide is desired, these people should be allowed to die at their own hands.
6. They’ve made a mistake. This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defense against this, it seems to me, is education.
The wounds suicide leaves in the lives of those left behind by it are often deep and long lasting. The apparent senselessness of suicide often fuels the most significant pain survivors feel. Thinking we all deal better with tragedy when we understand its underpinnings, I’ve offered the preceding paragraphs in hopes that anyone reading this who’s been left behind by a suicide might be able to more easily find a way to move on, to relinquish their guilt and anger, and find closure. Despite the abrupt way you may have been left, those don’t have to be the only two emotions you’re doomed to feel about the one who left you.
Alex Lickerman is an internal medicine physician at the University of Chicago who blogs at Happiness in this World.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Determine the Quickest, Most Effective, and Least Costly Way to Clean Up
If you have had a suicide, homicide, or death of any sort in which blood or bodily fluids are lost you are now in need a biohazard clean up company. Another term used to describe a biohazard cleaner is described by many to be crime scene clean up or biorecovery technician. This type of service is not commonly used but is very necessary. The harmful elements of a death scene or trauma scene are typically traumatic and gruesome in nature but in addition to this element their is an issue of health problems that can come from some of the toxins released in the scene. These toxins may be blood borne pathogens, other viruses and disease, many unknowns, as well as odor releasing elements that can cause a home to be almost uninhabitable. In addition to this whatever has been cleaned or removed by the biohazard clean up crew must then be disposed of in a safe and lawful manner, meeting any EPA and other federal and state regulations.
Our crime scene clean up experts are fully licensed in each state and meet all legal requirements, but in addition to this they are highly trained and qualified and have hundred of clean up hours under their belt. A death clean up crew will arrive at your home within an hour of your call if you request. They will begin a remediation inspections and then determine the quickest, most effective, and least costly way to clean up the home and remove any of the remains from the dead body as well as remove the odor. Our biorecovery clean up company will also assist in any billing questions and assist with proper insurance claim filing where appropriate.
The end result is your home getting back to a safe condition, our biorecovery clean up crews always use care and are discreet. Unlike most dead body clean up services, that can take days to complete jobs because they are one man outfits or have to drive from many states over, our crime scene clean up crew will be able to bring as many people as the call requires to get the property cleaned and remove any blood, bodily fluids, brain fragments and more.Contact our 24hrs dispatch center at 877-246-2532
Our crime scene clean up experts are fully licensed in each state and meet all legal requirements, but in addition to this they are highly trained and qualified and have hundred of clean up hours under their belt. A death clean up crew will arrive at your home within an hour of your call if you request. They will begin a remediation inspections and then determine the quickest, most effective, and least costly way to clean up the home and remove any of the remains from the dead body as well as remove the odor. Our biorecovery clean up company will also assist in any billing questions and assist with proper insurance claim filing where appropriate.
The end result is your home getting back to a safe condition, our biorecovery clean up crews always use care and are discreet. Unlike most dead body clean up services, that can take days to complete jobs because they are one man outfits or have to drive from many states over, our crime scene clean up crew will be able to bring as many people as the call requires to get the property cleaned and remove any blood, bodily fluids, brain fragments and more.Contact our 24hrs dispatch center at 877-246-2532
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Police Seeking Donnell Logan in Connection with 118th St. Homicide
On Saturday, April 24, at 1:25 a.m., police responded to a call of a male shot in front of 357 West 118th Street. Upon arrival, he was discovered lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. EMS responded and transported the victim to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced DOA.
The DOA has been identified as James Williams, 31, of 894 Rogers Ave., Brooklyn, New York.
The NYPD is now seeking the public's assistance in locating Donnell Logan, aka "Nelly," aka "Lefty" (pictured), wanted for questioning in the homicide. Logan is a black male, 21, and at the time of the incident was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans.
Anyone with information on Logan's whereabouts is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit tips by logging onto NYPDcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES); enter TIP577.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
This job is murder
NYPD solved 59% of 2009 slayings
By REUVEN BLAU and BRAD HAMILTON
What are the chances of getting away with murder in New York City?
About 41 percent.
The NYPD solved 59 percent of homicides last year -- down 8 percentage points from the year before, and about 5 points less than the national average in 2008, according to data obtained under a Freedom of Information request.
The "clearance rate" -- cases where arrests are made -- plummeted despite detectives having to investigate a near-record low 471 slayings, police records show.
"All the cases on TV are solved with evidence," said Vernon Geberth, a famed detective and former commander of the Bronx homicide task force. "People start to think we can solve all these crimes."
The data came out during an alarming uptick in murders. There were 139 homicides so far this year as of April 18, a 27 percent jump over the 109 killings in the same period last year.
In 2009, cops solved 75 percent of rapes, 42 percent of robberies, 18 percent of burglaries and 25 percent of grand larcenies -- all higher than the national average the year before. About 54 percent of felony assaults were cleared; the national average in 2008 was 55 percent.
The easiest crime to get away with was car theft -- just 9 percent were solved in the city and only 12 percent nationally. And auto thieves are not slowing down. They swiped 2,869 vehicles in the Big Apple this year, up from 2,852 over the same period in 2009.
The NYPD closely guards its performance figures, unlike crime stats, which cops are required to turn over to the FBI.
For years, the department voluntarily gave the feds its clearance rates, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly ended the practice in 2002, claiming that computer problems got in the way -- though detectives still get the information, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
"Clearance rates for the NYPD have been consistent over the years, and usually higher than the national average," said Browne, pointing out the department's 67 percent murder clearance rate in 2008 was 3 percentage points higher than the national figure. "I expect the actual clearance rate for 2009 murders will improve as arrests in 2010 for 2009 murders are made and recorded."
Veteran detectives say they're working harder than ever to crack cases but are hampered by dwindling ranks and a bigger workload. They now must handle misdemeanor cases that once went to beat cops.
Investigators say the diminished clearance rates could be a result of them taking longer to solve cases, which are increasingly dependent on high-tech evidence like DNA that takes time to collect and analyze.
By REUVEN BLAU and BRAD HAMILTON
What are the chances of getting away with murder in New York City?
About 41 percent.
The NYPD solved 59 percent of homicides last year -- down 8 percentage points from the year before, and about 5 points less than the national average in 2008, according to data obtained under a Freedom of Information request.
The "clearance rate" -- cases where arrests are made -- plummeted despite detectives having to investigate a near-record low 471 slayings, police records show.
"All the cases on TV are solved with evidence," said Vernon Geberth, a famed detective and former commander of the Bronx homicide task force. "People start to think we can solve all these crimes."
The data came out during an alarming uptick in murders. There were 139 homicides so far this year as of April 18, a 27 percent jump over the 109 killings in the same period last year.
In 2009, cops solved 75 percent of rapes, 42 percent of robberies, 18 percent of burglaries and 25 percent of grand larcenies -- all higher than the national average the year before. About 54 percent of felony assaults were cleared; the national average in 2008 was 55 percent.
The easiest crime to get away with was car theft -- just 9 percent were solved in the city and only 12 percent nationally. And auto thieves are not slowing down. They swiped 2,869 vehicles in the Big Apple this year, up from 2,852 over the same period in 2009.
The NYPD closely guards its performance figures, unlike crime stats, which cops are required to turn over to the FBI.
For years, the department voluntarily gave the feds its clearance rates, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly ended the practice in 2002, claiming that computer problems got in the way -- though detectives still get the information, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
"Clearance rates for the NYPD have been consistent over the years, and usually higher than the national average," said Browne, pointing out the department's 67 percent murder clearance rate in 2008 was 3 percentage points higher than the national figure. "I expect the actual clearance rate for 2009 murders will improve as arrests in 2010 for 2009 murders are made and recorded."
Veteran detectives say they're working harder than ever to crack cases but are hampered by dwindling ranks and a bigger workload. They now must handle misdemeanor cases that once went to beat cops.
Investigators say the diminished clearance rates could be a result of them taking longer to solve cases, which are increasingly dependent on high-tech evidence like DNA that takes time to collect and analyze.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Hiring A Pro For A Crime/Biohazard Cleanup
Unbeknownst to most, crime scenes, biohazard scenes or death scene in general should not be cleaned by property owners/management companies where crime or death scenes have occured. In addition, police and municipal workers do not clean crime/death scenes in the private sector.
The term crime scene technically refers to any area where a crime has taken place. Having a crime committed on your property can be traumatic and psychologically damaging. If this occurs in a property you own or rent, you may be surprised to know that the onus of cleanup belongs to you. Cleaning up after a crime yourself can make the trauma much worse, as well as physically dangerous to future residents of the home. In order to be assured a safe, clean property going forward, it is always recommended to leave the cleanup to the pros.
A lot of people don't really understand what constitutes a crime scene until they themselves step into one. Whenever such an event occurs, the police, ambulance services or fire departments are called first. Emergency services do the most important work in these situations, but one aspect of the job they do not handle: the cleanup. So crime scene cleanup professionals are the second call you should always make after a crime has taken place.
Psychological Trauma
It's true that the owner of a residence is actually responsible for its cleanup. Still, no one should ever be forced to do so. The trauma of performing such a cleanup can be devastating, and the impact of engaging in such an act can scar a person for life. The best crime scene cleanup crews are given special sensitivity training, so they can tactfully interact with a bereaved family while not falling apart at the same time.
Biohazard Dangers
Federal regulations assert that all body fluids are considered biohazards. As such, only a person trained in removing biohazard materials should clean a crime scene contaminated by bodily matter. This isn't merely an overly cautious suggestion; blood and tissue are truly dangerous substances that can easily lead to infection. Often, a small splatter or stain on a wall or floor only indicates that what lies beneath is a much larger pool of human detritus. Only someone equipped with the tools (such as biohazard suits, nonporous gloves, and breathing apparatus) and training should attempt to clean up this kind of mess. Sometimes, a crime scene that even appears relatively clean can hide an invisible mess of bacteria and other dangerous pathogens. Only someone with the proper apparatus to completely disinfect the domicile should be called in to clean it up.
Disposing of Waste
Anyone transporting biohazard or human remains requires special permits and equipment to do so. In addition to transporting issues, crime scene cleaners have to pay a medical disposal company to dispose of human waste by burning it in a special incinerator. The medical waste companies generally charge by the pound and will only burn a minimum amount of waste. Therefore, crime scene cleanup companies will often store biohazard waste until they have enough to dispose of. Here in NY City it is illedale to dispose and any material that contains blood or body fluids into the City Sanitation stream. Mattresses, chairs, linens, ect. can only be disposed by a company that has a permit to dispose of these items as regulated waste or red bag waste. Any management company that has there employee perform this work without the proper training, medical followup and disposal is at risk of receiving fines from OSHA, DEC, and Sanitation.
There are many good reasons not to attempt a crime scene cleanup on your own. Crime scene cleanup organizations regulate and set certain standards for the industry. So, if a crime has been committed on your property, the best thing you can do is to contact these institutions for a recommendation.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Clean Team
As bio-recovery experts, this Ulster County couple spends their days decontaminating crime scenes
By: Nina Flanagan
Ever wonder who cleans up crime scenes, traffic accidents, or decomposing bodies discovered days or weeks after death? How about houses piled floor-to-ceiling with garbage? Although breezily depicted in the recent film Sunshine Cleaning, this work is no walk in the (Hollywood) park. It requires the fortitude of an EMS worker and the tact of a funeral director. Fortunately, West Saugerties resident Raquel Steinlage-Pallak and her husband/partner-in-crime-cleanup, Ian, have experience being both.
Beginning in high school as a volunteer for the Miami-Dade Crime Scene Unit, Raquel’s journey into this enigmatic world took several turns. She was a mortician, funeral director, and a death investigator; she also graduated with a degree in social work/criminal justice. “It’s difficult dealing with relatives of people who die suddenly or violently,” she says. “They want answers right away, and contrary to popular TV shows, results for some tests can take months.”
While in Florida, she became aware of several crime-scene cleaning companies, and it seemed a viable career option. When she realized that no one was offering bio-recovery (as the process is called) in Ulster County, she began thinking about starting her own company. “Many people thought it was ghoulish,” she remembers. “But from our perspective, it’s a service.” She and Ian decided to move forward, and created Ulster Biorecovery, LLC in 2008.
“You can’t just call a housecleaning service to clean up crime scenes,” states Raquel. Unfortunately, it turns out you probably can, but shouldn’t — due to federal, state, and local guidelines for handling medical waste. As a homeowner, landlord, or employer, you’re responsible for any pathogens left behind which can cause sickness months or even years later.
“Upon arrival, it’s critical to establish when the incident occurred, other hazards at the site, items of sentimental or financial value that need to be salvaged, and the presence of free roaming pets that may have spread contamination,” Raquel summarizes. After suiting up in protective gear, the couple documents the scene with photos, sketches, and video. A staging area for equipment is set up just beyond the area to be cleaned. Work progresses from the most contaminated area to the least. Vomit in a police car takes a couple of hours to clean; a decomposed body can take up to two weeks or more to disinfect and deodorize; the process often entails almost complete inside demolition, right down to the wall studs and trusses.
Raquel recalls their first job was a “trash” house, which was occupied by a family. It was filled with garbage and had no working bathroom, which she says is often more psychologically upsetting than an actual crime scene. Ian agrees: “You’d never think in a million years that parents could treat their own kids that way.” Yet, they have to remain neutral. “You’re not there to judge a situation, you’re there to do your job and clean it up,” he explains. Other jobs have included a fire in a house where an elderly woman had hoarded everything (including trash) and owned about 50 feral cats. Garbage was literally piled up to the ceiling. Ian says a “viscerally shocking” job involved the suicide of a young man, who shot himself in the shower. A decomposed body in the Bronx wasn’t discovered for two weeks. “This man lived in this boarding house for 10 years and died in his room. The landlord couldn’t even remember his first name.” Raquel shakes her head. “That’s what we encounter.”
The work is both emotionally and physically demanding. Donning Tyvek coveralls, gloves, boots, and respirators slows them down. Special equipment — ozone generators (for big stinks), ultra low volume foggers (to dispense disinfectants in tiny particles), and an automatic pressure washer — is used to tackle tough jobs. There’s some low-tech stuff, too. “Our handy-dandy blood detector, like on CSI, is just hydrogen peroxide that bubbles on contact with blood,” laughs Raquel. Paper towels and shovels are often used to clean up large amounts of blood.
Raquel has some advice for those considering bio-recovery as a career. “Have a passion for it because it’s a lot of work. The key is to restore the environment and make it safe. And remember, you’re also emotionally restoring it, too.”
Friday, March 26, 2010
Spike in killings and shootings around the city has New Yorkers worried
BY Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Murders are up sharply in the city this year, with startling increases in gunplay across the five boroughs, a Daily News study of NYPD statistics shows.
The citywide murder rate has increased 22.8% in the first 11 weeks of the year over the same period in 2009, from 79 homicides to 97 as of Sunday, the most recent day for which statistics are available.
Shootings in general are also up citywide, with 293 people hit by bullets this year, a 16.3% change from the total of 252 recorded by March 21 last year.
Coming after a year in which New York saw the fewest number of homicides on record, the spike in crime rattled residents trying to go about their lives.
"There's always new problems," said Shirley Mercedes, 15, who lives in the South Bronx's gang-riddled 40th precinct, where the crime rise has been steepest.
Seventeen people have been shot in the precinct this year, compared with five over the same period last year.
"[It] is getting worse," Shirley said. "I shouldn't be used to it, but it's where I live."
There were 466 slayings in New York in 2009, the lowest year-end total since the NYPD started its tracking method in 1963.
"The NYPD is fighting its own success," said Paul Browne, the Police Department's top spokesman.
Browne pointed out that this year's murder rate is still 14% lower than 2008 and 39% lower than the murder rate in 2001.
The dramatic 2009 drop came despite harder economic times and a smaller police force stretched thin by counter-terrorism operations.
That big success is losing some ground, the statistics show.
Murders in Manhattan have risen from 9 to 16, a 77.8% increase, and they are up 28.6% in Queens, from 14 to 18.
Brooklyn and the Bronx have also suffered an increase in the murder rate - both at about 15%. Only Staten Island has seen another decrease in the homicide rate.
The overall city crime rate, comprised of seven major felonies, dropped 2% in the first three months of the year. And even among the increases, the raw numbers are still very low.
Some neighborhoods feel under siege.
"It's like war [and] it's getting worse every day," said Joel Araujo, 19, who works at a clothing store in Port Morris, Bronx.
In tree-lined Queens Village, murders have gone from 1 to 5 through Sunday - and the medical examiner confirmed a sixth yesterday - while shootings in the neighborhood have increased from 2 to 9, a 450% jump.
The 88th Precinct in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has already had six shootings this year, after having none in the first months of 2009.
Police officials have long credited the dramatic recent drop in crime to Operation Impact, which floods felony-prone areas with uniformed rookies.
Proposed budget cuts could further imperil its effectiveness by reducing NYPD manpower, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has warned.
Browne partially attributed the increase in murders to a rise in arson deaths, from zero to six, and in homicides among family members, from 12 to 14.
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Murders are up sharply in the city this year, with startling increases in gunplay across the five boroughs, a Daily News study of NYPD statistics shows.
The citywide murder rate has increased 22.8% in the first 11 weeks of the year over the same period in 2009, from 79 homicides to 97 as of Sunday, the most recent day for which statistics are available.
Shootings in general are also up citywide, with 293 people hit by bullets this year, a 16.3% change from the total of 252 recorded by March 21 last year.
Coming after a year in which New York saw the fewest number of homicides on record, the spike in crime rattled residents trying to go about their lives.
"There's always new problems," said Shirley Mercedes, 15, who lives in the South Bronx's gang-riddled 40th precinct, where the crime rise has been steepest.
Seventeen people have been shot in the precinct this year, compared with five over the same period last year.
"[It] is getting worse," Shirley said. "I shouldn't be used to it, but it's where I live."
There were 466 slayings in New York in 2009, the lowest year-end total since the NYPD started its tracking method in 1963.
"The NYPD is fighting its own success," said Paul Browne, the Police Department's top spokesman.
Browne pointed out that this year's murder rate is still 14% lower than 2008 and 39% lower than the murder rate in 2001.
The dramatic 2009 drop came despite harder economic times and a smaller police force stretched thin by counter-terrorism operations.
That big success is losing some ground, the statistics show.
Murders in Manhattan have risen from 9 to 16, a 77.8% increase, and they are up 28.6% in Queens, from 14 to 18.
Brooklyn and the Bronx have also suffered an increase in the murder rate - both at about 15%. Only Staten Island has seen another decrease in the homicide rate.
The overall city crime rate, comprised of seven major felonies, dropped 2% in the first three months of the year. And even among the increases, the raw numbers are still very low.
Some neighborhoods feel under siege.
"It's like war [and] it's getting worse every day," said Joel Araujo, 19, who works at a clothing store in Port Morris, Bronx.
In tree-lined Queens Village, murders have gone from 1 to 5 through Sunday - and the medical examiner confirmed a sixth yesterday - while shootings in the neighborhood have increased from 2 to 9, a 450% jump.
The 88th Precinct in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has already had six shootings this year, after having none in the first months of 2009.
Police officials have long credited the dramatic recent drop in crime to Operation Impact, which floods felony-prone areas with uniformed rookies.
Proposed budget cuts could further imperil its effectiveness by reducing NYPD manpower, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has warned.
Browne partially attributed the increase in murders to a rise in arson deaths, from zero to six, and in homicides among family members, from 12 to 14.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Long Island teen's suicide linked to cruel cyberbullies, formspring.me site: police
BY Oren Yaniv
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cops are investigating whether cyberbullies contributed to the suicide of a Long Island teen with nasty messages posted online after her death.
Alexis Pilkington, 17, a West Islip soccer star, took her own life Sunday following
vicious taunts on social networking sites - which persisted postmortem on Internet
tribute pages, worsening the grief of her family and friends.
"Investigators are monitoring the postings and will take action if any communication is determined to be of a criminal nature,"Suffolk County Deputy Chief of Detectives
Frank Stallone said yesterday.
Alexis' parents downplayed the Internet role, saying their daughter was in
counseling before she ever signed up with formspring.me, a new social site, where
many of the attacks appeared.
"I believe in my heart that cyberbullying wasn't the cause of Lexi's death," said her mother, Paula Pilkington. "This is a mistake."
Alexis' father, Tom Pilkington, who serves in the NYPD, has said they will cooperate
with the police probe.
Despite the negativity online, Paula Pilkington said the family is getting plenty of support in the real world.
"The outpouring of children coming to my house is amazing," she said. "There has to be some positive coming out of this."
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cops are investigating whether cyberbullies contributed to the suicide of a Long Island teen with nasty messages posted online after her death.
Alexis Pilkington, 17, a West Islip soccer star, took her own life Sunday following
vicious taunts on social networking sites - which persisted postmortem on Internet
tribute pages, worsening the grief of her family and friends.
"Investigators are monitoring the postings and will take action if any communication is determined to be of a criminal nature,"Suffolk County Deputy Chief of Detectives
Frank Stallone said yesterday.
Alexis' parents downplayed the Internet role, saying their daughter was in
counseling before she ever signed up with formspring.me, a new social site, where
many of the attacks appeared.
"I believe in my heart that cyberbullying wasn't the cause of Lexi's death," said her mother, Paula Pilkington. "This is a mistake."
Alexis' father, Tom Pilkington, who serves in the NYPD, has said they will cooperate
with the police probe.
Despite the negativity online, Paula Pilkington said the family is getting plenty of support in the real world.
"The outpouring of children coming to my house is amazing," she said. "There has to be some positive coming out of this."
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Woman Sues NYPD For Leaving Crime Scene A Bloody Mess - New York Post
It is bad enough when a man is murdered in your backyard - but it is worse when the city leaves you to mop up the mess, the New York Post reported Sunday.
That was the lament of three Queens, N.Y., women suing the city for failing to clean up a crime scene or keep a promise to advise them on how to safely scrub bodily fluids from their driveways and walkways.
Grace Scott, 56, was in her home with a friend when shots rang out Nov. 28, 2008.
Police told Scott and her family to stay inside as they investigated the murder of Sheldon Francis, 31.
Authorities said at the time that they would go back to talk to the homeowners about the cleanup.
No one ever did.
"I don't know how to clean up blood," said Scott, shuddering at the memory of being unable to remove the stains. "It was embedded."
Scott tried using peroxide and bleach before finally paying $4,000 to replace the concrete.
The NYPD, which is being sued for $120,000, said it does not clean up crime scenes.
That was the lament of three Queens, N.Y., women suing the city for failing to clean up a crime scene or keep a promise to advise them on how to safely scrub bodily fluids from their driveways and walkways.
Grace Scott, 56, was in her home with a friend when shots rang out Nov. 28, 2008.
Police told Scott and her family to stay inside as they investigated the murder of Sheldon Francis, 31.
Authorities said at the time that they would go back to talk to the homeowners about the cleanup.
No one ever did.
"I don't know how to clean up blood," said Scott, shuddering at the memory of being unable to remove the stains. "It was embedded."
Scott tried using peroxide and bleach before finally paying $4,000 to replace the concrete.
The NYPD, which is being sued for $120,000, said it does not clean up crime scenes.
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