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.”
Showing posts with label New York Crime Scene Cleanup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Crime Scene Cleanup. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
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.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Behind Yellow Tape: New York City Crime Scene Cleaners
By Peter O'Dowd.
RON Gos-po-dar-ski works in a Queens industrial neighborhood. Across the street from the front door of the Bio Recovery Corporation, graying tombstones rise up behind the gates of an old cemetery. It's only a coincidence, of course, but the connection is almost impossible to ignore…because inside the office, Gospodarski waits patiently for New Yorkers to die.
AX (Gospodarski 0:07)
We're sitting here hoping that something happens to somebody and we're hoping is something we can clean up. In reality it's a little weird. It's strange.
AMBI OF PRINTER PEELING OFF
NARR
His aging dot matrix printer spits out a feed from the police department. It reveals the stabbings and homicides in progress throughout the city. Today, there isn't much…just a Bank Robbery on Hill Street.
POST PRINTER AMBI
NARR
Nine years ago, Gospodarski saw an opportunity to make money from tragedy. When the police leave the scene of a murder or suicide, the body is gone, but the evidence of violence often remains.
AX (Gospodarski 0:21)
We had on in a few years back, it was in Lower Manhattan in China town where a noodle-making machine have these big blades on it, went flying. Cut the arm off another, decapitated another, cut another one to pieces. It just went flying this blade. And you know the amount of blood that's there, you walk in to these places and its like now what do we do, you know?
NARR
Families and business owners are often left to clean up. It's a trauma that no one wants to relive. And they don't have to if they hire someone else to do it.
GARAGE DOOR AMBI and RAIN
Today, Gospodarski and his partner Manny Sosa have a job lined up for 10 am.
The door to his garage creaks open. Light floods in and the cemetery slowly unveils itself behind a sheet of rain.
ENGINE STARTS CAR AMBI ROLLS UNDERNEATH THROUGHOUT
Today's job is a suicide attempt. A man in his 60s depressed over losing his job as a lawyer stabbed himself repeatedly. The result, of course, was blood. Lots of it.
AX (Gospodarski 0:09)
Blood everywhere to somebody could mean a few drops of blood to us versus you walk in and the whole place is covered and we're not prepared for it. So it goes from one extreme to the other.
NARR
The victim didn't die, but that's about all the men know of his condition. It's been almost two weeks since the accident.
LET CAR AMBI POST FOR 4 SECONDS
27-year-old Many Sosa tries not to let the gore that permeates his workdays bother him. But he says it's difficult because he sees parts of living and dying that almost no one else does. He knows, for instance, that many people spend their final moments clutching to life in the privacy of their bathrooms.
AX (Sosa 0:20)
The messiest thing I ever saw was a 300-pound guy who died in his toilet. His body fluids went through the wall and ended up on someone else's bathroom. The floor from his body fat was so greasy that I almost fell that day.
NARR
As unsettling as it may be, both men say the work also fascinates them. When Gospodarski started his business in 1998, he says he was the only company of its kind in New York City. For referrals he relies on the Medical Examiner and victim advocacy groups. It's not exactly the type of business that can depend on repeat customers. And Gospodarski says marketing is a nightmare.
AX (Gospodarski 0:12)
You can't take a billboard and put it up on he side of he road and say hey, call me when my son dies. We're the type of business where people only want to know about us when something happens. But the problem is, how do you market for that?
NARR
Still, the industry has exploded in recent years. Gospodarski credits misinformed media reports claiming unrealistic $400 dollar an hour paydays.
Dale Cillian, heads a national organization called the American Bio Recovery Association. He says making money isn't as easy as it sounds.
AX (Cillian 0:09)
You may have a few jobs that pay pretty well, but you got to remember you're not doing these jobs everyday. We're talking about something that may come once every couple of months or every couple of weeks as far as large jobs go.
NARR
Cillian says carpet cleaners or maid services go into crime scene clean up without proper training, equipment, or insurance. All these Johnny-Come-Latelys have Cillian worried. Many states don't require mandatory blood-born pathogen or hazardous material training. Dead bodies are havens for bacteria. Cillian sees start-ups dumping bloodied mattresses in city landfills. And that puts everyone at risk.
AX (Cillian 0:25)
If you want to go to extremes, there are people who use like a minivan that they put their kids in and they will transport their kids in. And they will go ahead and transport these bags of medical waste. And sometimes, they leak. So now you have these infectious bodily fluids or leaking in the back of your pickup truck that you use around your house. There is a lot of problems.
NARR
Cillian actually wants the government to impose federal regulations on the industry.
AMBI STAIR CLIMBING
On West 87th Street in Manhattan, Manny Sosa climbs the steps to a tiny forth-floor apartment.
AX (Sosa 0:03)
It's in here.
He enters a cluttered bedroom and finds a blood-stained mattress beneath a dusty canopy. At his feet, he sees more blood, spread out like an inkblot on the carpet. He starts to work. He sprays down a rocking chair with disinfectant and wipes away the blood. The soiled carpet must go, so he rips it up from the floor.
AMBI OF SPRAYING, SCRUBBING, BANGING THROUGHOUT
More than the blood, today it's the atmosphere that bothers Sosa. Inside the shadows of the canopy, a portrait of John F. Kennedy hangs above the bed. Elsewhere, every inch of wall space in the apartment is covered by photographs of old movie stars and fading prints of Van Goh. Paint hangs from the ceiling in long, thin sheets. There's a pornographic CD atop the television.
In the kitchen the man's nephew makes tea and smokes a cigarette.
His name is Cory Brackett, and he remembers the night he found his uncle nearly two weeks before.
AX (Brackett 0:42)
-He stabbed himself 30 times
-With what?
-A kitchen knife. 20 in the base of the neck, 5-7 in the stomach.
NARR
Brackett says his uncle is in psychiatric hospital. Considering his family history, none of this surprises him.
AX (Brackett)
His brother the painter starved himself. His sister was caught in a love triangle and drove her car into a wall. To quote Carey Grant, insanity doesn't run in my family, it practically gallops.
NARR
Sosa is folding up the carpet and stuffing it into a red biohazard bag. Gospodarski comes in to help fold up and duct tape the mattress.
In the next room, Brackett sits on the couch and turns on a French film.
AMBI FRENCH FLIM
He starts playing a guitar.
AMBI GUITAR MUSIC
Brackett says music helps him deal with the chaos.
AX (Brackett TK)
-Music is life….
-OK, Corey?
-Yes, sir.
-Can you come here and see?
NARR
Sosa shoulders the uncle's mattress down the stairs himself while Brackett writes a check. If his family had been victims of a crime, the state would have paid up to $2,500 for the clean up. In some cases, homeowners insurance might also foot the bill. Today, Brackett pays Gospodarski $850.
As he leaves the apartment, Gosparski explains that not every job is gruesome. Sometimes, the men are voyeurs, drawn into lives that few people were ever meant to see.
AX (Gospodarski 0:20)
OK. Professional face. See this is how it happens. At lot of times we'll get jobs where it's different and strange, spooky and freaky, whatever. Weird and when you're in there you have to maintain a professional face. But when you come out, you have to talk about it. Joke around about it.
NARR
Sosa says he lives differently as a result of his work. He has become, he says, an amateur philosopher.
AX (Sosa :16)
I don't really listen to people who complain, my life is messed up because of this. Well, go speak to that guy who is dead right now. I'm mean, that's how I see it. I mean, why complain so much about your life? Do something. I'm not saying go kill yourself, but make it better.
NARR
Of If everyone heeded Sosas advice, he'd be out of a job. So far this year, more than 100 people have been murdered in New York City. Many more killed themselves. Or tried to at least. Each of these sad realities provides Sosa and his parntner with one more chance to make a living.
RON Gos-po-dar-ski works in a Queens industrial neighborhood. Across the street from the front door of the Bio Recovery Corporation, graying tombstones rise up behind the gates of an old cemetery. It's only a coincidence, of course, but the connection is almost impossible to ignore…because inside the office, Gospodarski waits patiently for New Yorkers to die.
AX (Gospodarski 0:07)
We're sitting here hoping that something happens to somebody and we're hoping is something we can clean up. In reality it's a little weird. It's strange.
AMBI OF PRINTER PEELING OFF
NARR
His aging dot matrix printer spits out a feed from the police department. It reveals the stabbings and homicides in progress throughout the city. Today, there isn't much…just a Bank Robbery on Hill Street.
POST PRINTER AMBI
NARR
Nine years ago, Gospodarski saw an opportunity to make money from tragedy. When the police leave the scene of a murder or suicide, the body is gone, but the evidence of violence often remains.
AX (Gospodarski 0:21)
We had on in a few years back, it was in Lower Manhattan in China town where a noodle-making machine have these big blades on it, went flying. Cut the arm off another, decapitated another, cut another one to pieces. It just went flying this blade. And you know the amount of blood that's there, you walk in to these places and its like now what do we do, you know?
NARR
Families and business owners are often left to clean up. It's a trauma that no one wants to relive. And they don't have to if they hire someone else to do it.
GARAGE DOOR AMBI and RAIN
Today, Gospodarski and his partner Manny Sosa have a job lined up for 10 am.
The door to his garage creaks open. Light floods in and the cemetery slowly unveils itself behind a sheet of rain.
ENGINE STARTS CAR AMBI ROLLS UNDERNEATH THROUGHOUT
Today's job is a suicide attempt. A man in his 60s depressed over losing his job as a lawyer stabbed himself repeatedly. The result, of course, was blood. Lots of it.
AX (Gospodarski 0:09)
Blood everywhere to somebody could mean a few drops of blood to us versus you walk in and the whole place is covered and we're not prepared for it. So it goes from one extreme to the other.
NARR
The victim didn't die, but that's about all the men know of his condition. It's been almost two weeks since the accident.
LET CAR AMBI POST FOR 4 SECONDS
27-year-old Many Sosa tries not to let the gore that permeates his workdays bother him. But he says it's difficult because he sees parts of living and dying that almost no one else does. He knows, for instance, that many people spend their final moments clutching to life in the privacy of their bathrooms.
AX (Sosa 0:20)
The messiest thing I ever saw was a 300-pound guy who died in his toilet. His body fluids went through the wall and ended up on someone else's bathroom. The floor from his body fat was so greasy that I almost fell that day.
NARR
As unsettling as it may be, both men say the work also fascinates them. When Gospodarski started his business in 1998, he says he was the only company of its kind in New York City. For referrals he relies on the Medical Examiner and victim advocacy groups. It's not exactly the type of business that can depend on repeat customers. And Gospodarski says marketing is a nightmare.
AX (Gospodarski 0:12)
You can't take a billboard and put it up on he side of he road and say hey, call me when my son dies. We're the type of business where people only want to know about us when something happens. But the problem is, how do you market for that?
NARR
Still, the industry has exploded in recent years. Gospodarski credits misinformed media reports claiming unrealistic $400 dollar an hour paydays.
Dale Cillian, heads a national organization called the American Bio Recovery Association. He says making money isn't as easy as it sounds.
AX (Cillian 0:09)
You may have a few jobs that pay pretty well, but you got to remember you're not doing these jobs everyday. We're talking about something that may come once every couple of months or every couple of weeks as far as large jobs go.
NARR
Cillian says carpet cleaners or maid services go into crime scene clean up without proper training, equipment, or insurance. All these Johnny-Come-Latelys have Cillian worried. Many states don't require mandatory blood-born pathogen or hazardous material training. Dead bodies are havens for bacteria. Cillian sees start-ups dumping bloodied mattresses in city landfills. And that puts everyone at risk.
AX (Cillian 0:25)
If you want to go to extremes, there are people who use like a minivan that they put their kids in and they will transport their kids in. And they will go ahead and transport these bags of medical waste. And sometimes, they leak. So now you have these infectious bodily fluids or leaking in the back of your pickup truck that you use around your house. There is a lot of problems.
NARR
Cillian actually wants the government to impose federal regulations on the industry.
AMBI STAIR CLIMBING
On West 87th Street in Manhattan, Manny Sosa climbs the steps to a tiny forth-floor apartment.
AX (Sosa 0:03)
It's in here.
He enters a cluttered bedroom and finds a blood-stained mattress beneath a dusty canopy. At his feet, he sees more blood, spread out like an inkblot on the carpet. He starts to work. He sprays down a rocking chair with disinfectant and wipes away the blood. The soiled carpet must go, so he rips it up from the floor.
AMBI OF SPRAYING, SCRUBBING, BANGING THROUGHOUT
More than the blood, today it's the atmosphere that bothers Sosa. Inside the shadows of the canopy, a portrait of John F. Kennedy hangs above the bed. Elsewhere, every inch of wall space in the apartment is covered by photographs of old movie stars and fading prints of Van Goh. Paint hangs from the ceiling in long, thin sheets. There's a pornographic CD atop the television.
In the kitchen the man's nephew makes tea and smokes a cigarette.
His name is Cory Brackett, and he remembers the night he found his uncle nearly two weeks before.
AX (Brackett 0:42)
-He stabbed himself 30 times
-With what?
-A kitchen knife. 20 in the base of the neck, 5-7 in the stomach.
NARR
Brackett says his uncle is in psychiatric hospital. Considering his family history, none of this surprises him.
AX (Brackett)
His brother the painter starved himself. His sister was caught in a love triangle and drove her car into a wall. To quote Carey Grant, insanity doesn't run in my family, it practically gallops.
NARR
Sosa is folding up the carpet and stuffing it into a red biohazard bag. Gospodarski comes in to help fold up and duct tape the mattress.
In the next room, Brackett sits on the couch and turns on a French film.
AMBI FRENCH FLIM
He starts playing a guitar.
AMBI GUITAR MUSIC
Brackett says music helps him deal with the chaos.
AX (Brackett TK)
-Music is life….
-OK, Corey?
-Yes, sir.
-Can you come here and see?
NARR
Sosa shoulders the uncle's mattress down the stairs himself while Brackett writes a check. If his family had been victims of a crime, the state would have paid up to $2,500 for the clean up. In some cases, homeowners insurance might also foot the bill. Today, Brackett pays Gospodarski $850.
As he leaves the apartment, Gosparski explains that not every job is gruesome. Sometimes, the men are voyeurs, drawn into lives that few people were ever meant to see.
AX (Gospodarski 0:20)
OK. Professional face. See this is how it happens. At lot of times we'll get jobs where it's different and strange, spooky and freaky, whatever. Weird and when you're in there you have to maintain a professional face. But when you come out, you have to talk about it. Joke around about it.
NARR
Sosa says he lives differently as a result of his work. He has become, he says, an amateur philosopher.
AX (Sosa :16)
I don't really listen to people who complain, my life is messed up because of this. Well, go speak to that guy who is dead right now. I'm mean, that's how I see it. I mean, why complain so much about your life? Do something. I'm not saying go kill yourself, but make it better.
NARR
Of If everyone heeded Sosas advice, he'd be out of a job. So far this year, more than 100 people have been murdered in New York City. Many more killed themselves. Or tried to at least. Each of these sad realities provides Sosa and his parntner with one more chance to make a living.
Monday, March 23, 2009
New Yorker finds niche cleaning up grisly scenes
Shanghai Star.
RON Gospodarski has made a career cleaning up after other people ?their blood, brain matter and body parts.
Gospodarski owns Bio-Recovery, a business that cleans crime, trauma and biohazard scenes in New York City and surrounding areas.
An emergency medical technician in the city for more than two decades, Gospodarski established Bio-Recovery nine years ago as an outgrowth of his old job, in which he would be among the first to arrive at a messy scene of tragedy.
“People would ask us who we could get to clean this up and we never knew anyone,?said Gospodarski, 43. “I did some research and found out no one was doing this here so I figured, let’s do something.?
His company, based in Long Island City, New York, charges customers US$600 and up, depending on the job. Families and property owners find him through funeral directors, the telephone book and the Internet. The police are forbidden to make such referrals.
Gospodarski and more than a dozen employees ?all with backgrounds as firefighters, police officers or in other emergency services ?arrive at a scene after the police finish collecting evidence.
Dressed in chemical-resistant blue suits, full-face respirators, gloves and boots, they meticulously scrub away blood, brain matter and other body fluids and parts following suicides, homicides and other traumatic events.
Tough task
“We’re helping people during a tragic time when they’re left with something like this,?said Gospodarski, who has a master’s degree in biology. “We’re there to do a job and we can’t get too emotional, because that gets in the way.?
Gospodarski, who says he works 10 to 15 hours a day, has cleaned up after stabbings, hangings and fatal work accidents.
Toughest to take, he says, are suicides of young people.
“You’re usually in their bedrooms and you’re looking at pictures of them and you see how they live and you think: ‘What would make someone go this far to do this?”’
Bio-Recovery has cleaned up after some of New York’s most sensational and headline-grabbing murder cases.
In 2000, the company cleaned a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Flushing, Queens, where seven people were shot execution-style inside the walk-in refrigerator. Five died.
Human nature
By the time Gospodarski’s group arrived, the entrance to the restaurant had been transformed into a shrine, adorned with votive candles, flower bouquets and sympathy notes.
Inside, the food contents of the walk-in had been left to spoil and the walls and floor were splattered with blood.
Bio-Recovery scrubbed and disinfected the apartment above the Carnegie Deli in New York’s theatre district following a highly publicized triple homicide in 2001.
Gospodarski’s group also helped clean up after letters containing anthrax were received at the New York offices of ABC News and the New York Post.
“We’ve run the gamut and we’ve seen everything,?he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m desensitized to this, but you do get used to it.?
The grim and gruesome job has its rewards, he says.
“The greatest satisfaction of the job is when the families call up and say thank you and that we really made a difference,?he said. “We get calls from the poorest to the richest who say that we’ve done a wonderful job and we appreciate it. That means a lot.?
The job also gives some insights into human nature.
He recalled being stopped by an onlooker as he cleaned up a building in Manhattan’s East Village where an elderly person had died of natural causes and body fluids dripped through six apartments before the corpse was discovered.
“It’s inevitable; someone will stick their head in and say, ‘Are they going to rent this?”’ he said. “It’s amazing.?
RON Gospodarski has made a career cleaning up after other people ?their blood, brain matter and body parts.
Gospodarski owns Bio-Recovery, a business that cleans crime, trauma and biohazard scenes in New York City and surrounding areas.
An emergency medical technician in the city for more than two decades, Gospodarski established Bio-Recovery nine years ago as an outgrowth of his old job, in which he would be among the first to arrive at a messy scene of tragedy.
“People would ask us who we could get to clean this up and we never knew anyone,?said Gospodarski, 43. “I did some research and found out no one was doing this here so I figured, let’s do something.?
His company, based in Long Island City, New York, charges customers US$600 and up, depending on the job. Families and property owners find him through funeral directors, the telephone book and the Internet. The police are forbidden to make such referrals.
Gospodarski and more than a dozen employees ?all with backgrounds as firefighters, police officers or in other emergency services ?arrive at a scene after the police finish collecting evidence.
Dressed in chemical-resistant blue suits, full-face respirators, gloves and boots, they meticulously scrub away blood, brain matter and other body fluids and parts following suicides, homicides and other traumatic events.
Tough task
“We’re helping people during a tragic time when they’re left with something like this,?said Gospodarski, who has a master’s degree in biology. “We’re there to do a job and we can’t get too emotional, because that gets in the way.?
Gospodarski, who says he works 10 to 15 hours a day, has cleaned up after stabbings, hangings and fatal work accidents.
Toughest to take, he says, are suicides of young people.
“You’re usually in their bedrooms and you’re looking at pictures of them and you see how they live and you think: ‘What would make someone go this far to do this?”’
Bio-Recovery has cleaned up after some of New York’s most sensational and headline-grabbing murder cases.
In 2000, the company cleaned a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Flushing, Queens, where seven people were shot execution-style inside the walk-in refrigerator. Five died.
Human nature
By the time Gospodarski’s group arrived, the entrance to the restaurant had been transformed into a shrine, adorned with votive candles, flower bouquets and sympathy notes.
Inside, the food contents of the walk-in had been left to spoil and the walls and floor were splattered with blood.
Bio-Recovery scrubbed and disinfected the apartment above the Carnegie Deli in New York’s theatre district following a highly publicized triple homicide in 2001.
Gospodarski’s group also helped clean up after letters containing anthrax were received at the New York offices of ABC News and the New York Post.
“We’ve run the gamut and we’ve seen everything,?he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m desensitized to this, but you do get used to it.?
The grim and gruesome job has its rewards, he says.
“The greatest satisfaction of the job is when the families call up and say thank you and that we really made a difference,?he said. “We get calls from the poorest to the richest who say that we’ve done a wonderful job and we appreciate it. That means a lot.?
The job also gives some insights into human nature.
He recalled being stopped by an onlooker as he cleaned up a building in Manhattan’s East Village where an elderly person had died of natural causes and body fluids dripped through six apartments before the corpse was discovered.
“It’s inevitable; someone will stick their head in and say, ‘Are they going to rent this?”’ he said. “It’s amazing.?
Monday, August 18, 2008
To Break the Crime Scene Tension, Jokes
Pepe Ortiz, a worker with the Bio-Recovery Corporation, in a Long Island City apartment in 2005 where the resident died a month earlier. (Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times)
On Wednesday, I spent a day with the friendly people at the Bio-Recovery Corporation, a Long Island City-based company specializing in what its business card succinctly describes as “crime and death scene cleanup.”It was an uneventful day, which came as something of a relief, considering what can happen on a busy day.
On Wednesday, I spent a day with the friendly people at the Bio-Recovery Corporation, a Long Island City-based company specializing in what its business card succinctly describes as “crime and death scene cleanup.”It was an uneventful day, which came as something of a relief, considering what can happen on a busy day.
One thing that may not come through in a story like this is how funny the Bio-Recovery president, Ron Gospodarski, and his employee, Manny Sosa, could be as I hung around with them. Mr. Gospodarski is genuinely cheerful, even jovial at times, though it feels a little strange to describe him that way in this context. Part of it is that, as a longtime paramedic, he has been confronting the fragility of life for years, and has long since gotten used to the sight of blood. Part of it, probably, is his outlook on the world, which he described this way: “I’m a realist. We all live, we all die, we all do funky things, we all do things we wish we hadn’t. That’s life.”
All that can lead to some strange and, yes, comical exchanges, like when Mr. Gospodarski spoke, via speaker phone, to a friend who was telling him about a fresh crime scene. Mr. Gospodarski, in the middle of a slow work day, set the tone by asking, “Did you make sure to tell him to bleed all over the place?” Word over the scanner was that the victim was “not likely” –- shorthand meaning not likely to die. “Shot in the neck,” the friend said.
“In the neck?” Mr. Gospodarski said. “He’s not likely. How is he shot in the neck?”
“Listen,” the friend deadpanned. “The neck has a lot of different locations.”
“In the neck?” Mr. Gospodarski said. “He’s not likely. How is he shot in the neck?”
“Listen,” the friend deadpanned. “The neck has a lot of different locations.”
This conversation probably loses some of its charm out of context. I had planned to work a few more of these kinds of moments into this week’s Dispatches feature for The City section of the paper, but they just wound up looking flat. Or they made the Bio-Recovery people, who showed plenty of care and sensitivity during the day I spent with them, look like ghouls, which they aren’t.
Thinking about this, what you might call the “you had to be there” effect, led me to contact Dr. Rod Martin , a professor of clinical psychology who teaches at the University of Western Ontario.
Dr. Martin wrote a book called “The Psychology of Humor,” so gallows humor is something he knows a lot about. In general, he said, humor is a form of play, of making serious things nonserious. Jokes centered on aggression or sex, for example, make issues that tend to arouse a lot of anxiety in people feel less threatening, he said.
Dr. Martin wrote a book called “The Psychology of Humor,” so gallows humor is something he knows a lot about. In general, he said, humor is a form of play, of making serious things nonserious. Jokes centered on aggression or sex, for example, make issues that tend to arouse a lot of anxiety in people feel less threatening, he said.
“Some people have referred to it as an emotional anesthesia,” Dr. Martin added. “If you laugh at something, at least for that moment, you’re not feeling the emotional impact of it.”
He actually knows a bit about the topic firsthand, he said. His wife is a nurse, and she has told him that the things she and her colleagues say among themselves would be shocking to outsiders. You always hear similar things about the police, and this kind of thing is common in newsrooms too.
He actually knows a bit about the topic firsthand, he said. His wife is a nurse, and she has told him that the things she and her colleagues say among themselves would be shocking to outsiders. You always hear similar things about the police, and this kind of thing is common in newsrooms too.
Dr. Martin said interviews with men who were prisoners of war in Vietnam indicated that joking about their situation was part of what allowed them to cope.
“In some contexts, the same humor could be seen as inappropriate — aggressive and offensive,” he said. “But in other contexts it could be essential to survive.”
“In some contexts, the same humor could be seen as inappropriate — aggressive and offensive,” he said. “But in other contexts it could be essential to survive.”
None of this, of course, is what anyone in a high-pressure job is thinking as he is cracking a dark joke. “The fact that it is unconscious is what makes it work so well,” Dr. Martin said. “Because people can fool themselves. They’ve convinced themselves that it was all just a joke.”
One last function of all the joking, he said, is as a kind of social lubricant in the most psychologically difficult situations. “You don’t start laughing unless there are other people to laugh with,” he said. “Probably if those guys were at the crime scenes by themselves, they wouldn’t be laughing. It’s with other people, and it’s kind of sharing the discomfort.”
One last thing: On Wednesday afternoon, in the Bio-Recovery van on the way back from picking up a load of dirty sheets from a Midtown hotel, we were stuck in traffic on the Upper East Side. Somebody spotted a lady talking with her doorman on the sidewalk, wearing a full-length fur coat and a fur hat that could only be described as gigantic. There was so much fur on her head that she looked as if she might tip over.
One last function of all the joking, he said, is as a kind of social lubricant in the most psychologically difficult situations. “You don’t start laughing unless there are other people to laugh with,” he said. “Probably if those guys were at the crime scenes by themselves, they wouldn’t be laughing. It’s with other people, and it’s kind of sharing the discomfort.”
One last thing: On Wednesday afternoon, in the Bio-Recovery van on the way back from picking up a load of dirty sheets from a Midtown hotel, we were stuck in traffic on the Upper East Side. Somebody spotted a lady talking with her doorman on the sidewalk, wearing a full-length fur coat and a fur hat that could only be described as gigantic. There was so much fur on her head that she looked as if she might tip over.
We all spotted her at the same time and there was a moment of surprised silence, until Manny Sosa, from the back of the van, grumbled, “I might have to call PETA on this address.”
Everybody cracked up, and for a second, we forgot about the traffic jam.
Everybody cracked up, and for a second, we forgot about the traffic jam.
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