Latest news with #crimeSceneCleaning
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
I clean crime scenes for a living - the job has left me gagging and sobbing in the shower, but there's one case that still haunts me years later
A woman who cleans crime scenes for a living has revealed the one case that haunts her years later. Lauren Baker, who is set to feature on Channel 4 series Crime Scene Cleaners, sat down with Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on Monday's instalment of This Morning. The trauma cleaning specialist, from Kent, wore a hazmat suit as she told the pair how she deal with 'dirt, grime filth - anything that can cause harm to the human body'. Lauren explained how she could walk into anything, from 'someone's bowels exploded' to 'needle sweeps'. Ben interjected: 'Can we just go back, did you say bowels had exploded?' 'When you pass your organs star to shut down, sometimes when we attend properties and unattended deaths, their bowels have erupted before they've actually passed... and then you've got the cleanup from that,' she explained. Lauren revealed the precautions the cleaners take to make sure they remain safe including double masks and gloves. She worked in domestic cleaning and recalled helping at a property where the elderly person with dementia didn't want carers anymore and their home had 'deteriorated'. 'That's when I soon realised that there is actually other people suffering like this and obviously hoarders come about and hoarding is a thing, and that can come in many shapes and sizes,' she said. 'I just wanted to help people,' Lauren added. The cleaning specialist described the range of work she covers and explained: 'We do unattended death, so that can be anything from a crime scene to someone falling and passing at home, or it could be where there's been an assault.' Cat asked Lauren if she ever tries to figure out what happened. Lauren admitted 'it's natural instinct' to try and guess what happened. 'You like to think you're a detective, but we're not, we're just cleaners,' she added. Lauren recalled one particularly shocking job and said: 'A lot of people don't realise these things happen on a daily basis. We went in once to a hotel room and were told a couple were in there and some arguments had broken out. There was blood everywhere.' Ben asked if Lauren found the work 'tough' given the situations she might be exposed to. 'Unattended deaths and suicides, they can be quite difficult, they can be tough ones to deal with,' she replied. 'How do you process it?' Ben asked. Lauren explained: 'You become sort of, not immune but... it's a job at the end of the day and somebody has to do it.' Despite the difficult aspects, the cleaner admitted she 'loves' her job and explained: 'I love my job and I wouldn't choose to do anything else... I help so many different people on a weekly basis and that for me is everything, I love helping people.' Lauren opens the windows of rooms where people have passed to allow their spirits to 'be free'. 'I do walk in and I do have a little chat with them,' she explained. 'I don't believe you pass and that's it you're gone.' The cleaning specialist explained it isn't always obvious that someone has passed away and sometimes 'there isn't much cleanup'. 'What's the hardest thing? What never leaves you?' Ben asked. Lauren replied: 'Suicides. People calculate their suicides and we've been in some before where we've found notes... we have to go back to the family and say this is what we've come across.' She added: 'People don't know that cleaners like us exist and they end up having to deal with that trauma by themselves...' Lauren explained they can take that extra element of stress away. She recalled one incident where she discovered a cat inside a freezer which had died and the owner who struggled with hoarding 'couldn't part with it'. The cleaning specialist managed to get the person to bury the beloved pet in their garden had a 'ceremony' for it. In an interview with Metro, Lauren opened up about her first ever job which was a suicide case. 'I went straight in at the deep end and it's always stuck with me. The person had planned every step and left notes saying not to come in and we had to tell the family,' she told the publication. She admitted it 'lives in my head quite a lot - I'll never forget that'. She recalled one incident where she discovered a cat inside a freezer which had died and the owner who struggled with hoarding 'couldn't part with it' The cleaner added: 'There are other tough cases as well where I've come home and had a little cry in the shower and I've taken it home with me.' She described how the smell of death can sometimes be very strong and overwhelming. 'I didn't always have a strong stomach at first, I had to develop it. I used to gag quite a bit but I learnt that on the job,' she added. Crime Scene Cleaners airs on Channel 4 on Monday, June 30 at 10pm.
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Killer fumes, tragic suicide notes & rotting corpses bulging with maggots…my life as a crime scene cleaner
FROM blood and bodily fluids to used needles, maggots and mouse-droppings, there isn't much that crime scene cleaner Lauren Baker hasn't seen - or smelled. Major crime leaves a trail of devastation - and once police have completed their forensics they call in a crack team of crime scene cleaners like Lauren. 11 11 These aren't your average cleaners. They are highly trained professionals who clean up dangerous hazards, including everything from airborne infectious diseases and killer drug fumes, to explosives, dirty needles and booby traps. In a new Channel 4 documentary - Crime Scene Cleaners - bodycam footage takes viewers beyond the police tape into the heart of the tragedy. Trauma cleaning expert Lauren brings years of experience to the most harrowing and dangerous scenes in Kent and Essex. 'I had a gentleman in a flat that was a full decomposition and that was quite bad,' she tells The Sun. 'The first thing that hits you when you walk through the door is the smell. And if it isn't the smell it is the flies and the maggots that come with it.' Lauren had worked in a pub and as a domestic cleaner before becoming inspired to set up her own business as a specialist bio-hazard cleaner. And now she's well-known in the business for her signature post-cleanse ritual - opening a window at the end to let the spirit of the deceased person be free. 'I had done a clean in a really grotty property, and the gentleman I helped had been suffering physically and mentally, and carers hadn't been in there,' she explains. 'I thought I could help people like him. So I went home and researched it as much as I could. 'I realised I actually enjoyed the filth and the grime, and I knew there was a market out there. I realised I could help a lot of people through the power of cleaning.' My perfect husband was hiding a twisted truth that led to a bloodbath – police found me in 'worst crime scene' ever 11 11 Toughest job But being a specialist crime scene cleaner is not for the faint-hearted, as they can be faced with murder scenes, suicides and unattended deaths where people have died alone at home and may not have been found for weeks - or months. Lauren, who runs LIT biohazard, says: 'It is a lot more intense and it takes a lot more of a mental strain on you than a physical strain.' She admits the toughest job is to clean up a home after someone has sadly taken their own life. "Obviously they are not your everyday clean up and there is a big story behind them,' Lauren says. 'I remember one of the first ones I went to and it was more of a mental strain than anything. 'We were the ones who found the [suicide] letters, we were the ones who had to take the note off the door and I can still remember what that note said word for word. We were the ones who found the [suicide] letters, we were the ones who had to take the note off the door and I can still remember what that note said word for word Lauren Baker 'Sometimes people do it in such a calculated way. 'We then have to go to the families and tell them what we have found. This one person had emptied bank accounts and left envelopes on the side with money in and named who it should go to. 'They had left individual letters. The note on the door was written in red pen saying 'Do not enter, call 999, there is a dead body inside.' 'That one will always stick with me. It really touched a nerve. You can see how they planned exactly what they are doing, and you can see how they are living as well, which led them to this point, not many belongings, not much food in the cupboards. 'You have got to be strong-minded to do this job. I listen to a lot of music. Sometimes I go home and I do have a little cry in the shower.' Stench of death Whenever people find out what blonde-haired mum Lauren does for a living she gets a barrage of questions. 'It sparks quite a reaction when I tell people what I do,' she chuckles. But there is one question she struggles to answer - what does death smell like? 'You do get used to it. But the smell of death I can't really describe, it is such a distinctive smell,' she says. When I first started I remember going home and thinking I smelled of death... one day I even scrubbed myself in Dettol and had about four showers and I could still smell death Lauren Baker 'We do have strong masks so usually you can't smell a lot of it. But we swear by putting a bit of Vicks underneath your nose, then your mask, and then you are good to go. 'But when I first started I remember going home and thinking I smelled of death. Psychologically because that is what I'd been smelling all day, that is what you think you smell of. 'One day I even scrubbed myself in Dettol and had about four showers and I could still smell death.' Hazardous Crime scene cleaners must wear top-to-toe PPE which is disposed of every day to shield them from dangerous biohazards, like blood-borne pathogens, harmful bacteria and toxic chemicals. Lauren's top priority is always keeping her team safe. She explains: 'My first thought is how long have they been there? Is there any decomposition? 'How bad is the clean-up going to be? We could be walking into a bloodbath. We could be walking into needles everywhere. 'You can have faeces, you can have bodily fluids, we don't know what we're walking into.' In the show Lauren's American counterparts are seen dealing with the scourge of fentanyl addiction and deaths - which pose their own dangers as inhaling airborne fentanyl fumes can cause serious side effects to police officers and crime scene cleaners. We could be walking into a bloodbath. We could be walking into needles everywhere. You can have faeces, you can have bodily fluids, we don't know what we're walking into Lauren Baker But thankfully that isn't something she and her team have experienced in the UK - although they do face different risks on a daily basis. 'There are risks - we have to be vaccinated to do our job,' she says. 'If we have a person who has passed away in his home and he has an infectious disease, that then can become airborne as his body decomposes. 'We have gone into homes and done needle sweeps before and you will be surprised where you can find needles. 'You've really got to have your wits about you and to be prepared for every situation. 'Most of the time people are generally found within three to four days. But you can have cases where people have been sat there for weeks. 'And if that is the case then you get an awful lot of decomposition to clean up and that is when you get flies, maggots, all sorts start to fester in there. 'When someone passes, fluid leaks from every hole in their body.' Strong stomach Lauren's firm also tackles hoarder cleans and mental health crisis cleaning. 'A lot of people who are suffering with their mental health, the first thing that takes a hit is their home,' she says. 'They tend to get to a point where they think, 'I will just step over it,' and then it gets to a point where there is no walkway to just step over but they are so far in with it that they don't know a way out. 'That's where we step in - a messy house is a messy mind. You can't get yourself back on the road to recovery with a messy home. 'It all depends on the person. We have done houses where it has been box upon box of empty cereal boxes. 'A lot of the time these people have experienced trauma in their past, or their parents had lived like that so it was just normal. But some of them find themselves in such a state. ' Alcoholics for example. Sometimes they will urinate in bottle after bottle and keep hold of that. 'They have got to the point where their toilet is overflowing and they don't know how to unblock it so they go in the bottle or the can. 'We have been in properties where we have picked a can up thinking it was empty and it was full of urine.' Biohazard cleaners like Lauren certainly need a strong stomach as well as a strong mind. But Lauren would not have it any other way. She says: 'I absolutely love my job. I'm helping people through cleaning and I wouldn't choose to do any other job in the world.' Crime Scene Cleaners starts at 10pm on Monday 30 June or stream all episodes on Channel 4. 11
