Crime Scene Leftovers Pose Problem For Sanitation

Call it the Case of the Bloody Mattress.

City sanitation workers in southwestern Kentucky were recently left with the problem of how to dispose of a bloody mattress put out with the trash.

The mattress came from a home where police say a 37-year-old man appears to have died from self-inflicted stab wounds. The problem came when trash collectors realized they couldn't pick up a potential biohazard, but didn't want to leave it by the side of the road in a residential neighborhood in Hopkinsville.

"This was an area of concern for us because blood is considered a biohazard and not only can our trash trucks not pick it up, but it could be dangerous for people in the community," said George Hampton, a route supervisor for Hopkinsville Solid Waste Authority.

The Kentucky New Era reports that the mattress disappeared by midweek, but sanitation officials didn't take it and were still trying to make sure it was properly disposed of. The location of the mattress remained a mystery at week's end.

Hopkinsville sanitation workers received an anonymous call reporting a mattress, possibly covered in blood, that had been set on a curb outside of a home. That was the concern of the anonymous caller, Hampton said, who said children in the neighborhood could start to play on the mattress and come into contact with the dried blood that might have diseases.

Because there was blood on the mattress, sanitation workers couldn't haul it off with the rest of the trash.

"It raises a question for us about where we take it from here," Hampton said. "Someone has to clean up messes like these and we can't do it."

Solid Waste Superintendent Bill Bailey said sanitation workers aren't allowed to pick up possible biohazards, including blood, from the side of the road. Instead, Bailey said, the department needs to call other landfills to see who will pick up and take the items.

"Sometimes we can process and wrap it in plastic and dispose of it that way. But other times we have to contact a company that deals with disposing of medical waste."

Charlotte Write, a spokeswoman for Stericycle, a national company that specializes in medical waste disposal, said medical waste is generally burned to kill pathogens that can live in dried blood.

"It is important to dispose of all medical waste, especially waste that comes from the body, so as not to spread diseases," Write said.

Hopkinsville Police Chief Guy Howie said the families must clean up the scene of a murder or suicide or pay to have it done.

"It doesn't sound very friendly, I know, but that's just how it has to be handled," Howie said. "Someone has to clean it up and someone has to dispose of all of this, it's just a matter of figuring out who. It's amazing that just one mattress on a curb can raise so many questions."

Someone solved sanitation's problem by taking the mattress from in front of the home. Bailey said sanitation workers didn't remove it, but finding out what became of the mattress is important. It had to be properly sterilized and disposed of.

"We can't just stick it in our landfill and be done with it," Bailey said. "Whether it's on that curb or not, it's still hazardous material."

Del. firm cleans up gore from bloody crime scenes

IRA PORTER
The Associated Press

When Bryon Brainard was called to a crime scene in Milltown, he looked like an astronaut in a lab suit and respirator.

But instead of exploring space, Brainard was recruited in March to clean up after a man fatally stabbed his wife and then himself in their home in the 2700 block of Charles Place, according to police.

"It wasn't an in-and-out job type situation," Brainard said. The wife's bloody remains were in the entrance way while the husband's were in the living room.

It also wasn't an unfamiliar scene to Brainard, the lead technician for Wilmington's Diamond Chemical & Supply Co.

"I feel like we do something good for the family, because you'll have good memories and I think that goes a long way," he said about the company's specialty-wiping away the gory reminders of violent crime.

Because of the amount of blood at the Milltown house, Brainard needed to assemble a team of technicians armed with tools ranging from scrub brushes and sponges to ozone air purifiers.

"It's typically not a pretty scene," said Cpl. Trinidad Navarro of New Castle County police. "We do not do cleanups. We take pictures, video and DNA for blood fibers, but we're not involved in the actual cleanup."

Because police focus only on evidence, companies such as Diamond Chemical & Supply are popping up all over the country to clean up after slayings, suicides and some deaths from natural causes.

Though police don't endorse any of them, they generally advise crime victims' families to let professionals eliminate the messy, bloody and potentially infectious telltale signs of a violent death.

After 12 years on the job, Brainard is no stranger to what sometimes happens when emotions turn violent.

And he's cleaned up settings that make even the most bloody horror films seem tame-the stench of decaying flesh, coagulated blood on hardwood floors, skin left behind by gunshots.

"I must have a strong stomach," said Brainard, 51, of Wilmington. "A couple of my technicians have gotten a little queasy at times."

Recently he was called to a Wilmington apartment where a man died of natural causes but wasn't discovered for days. Brainard grabbed an air purifier to remove the stench, scrubbed the floor with a deodorizer and disinfectant and then sealed it. The job was done in less than a day.

Any items made of cloth-including the sofa, clothes and shoes-were tossed, he said.

"Anytime anyone has a carpet and blood has gotten on it, I advise them to get rid of it," Brainard said.

That's because blood-and its ability to spread disease-is always a concern for Brainard and his crew, whether they have to clean up specks or pools, he said.

Though he's now a veteran, Brainard got into the business in 1997 when he needed a job and answered a newspaper ad.

At first, managers at Diamond talked to him about their air and odor division but then asked if he would be up to cleaning trauma scenes.

"They explained it to me, and I thought it would be a good experience," Brainard said recently, while dressed head to toe in a biohazard suit and full-face respirator.

"I had the stomach to do it," he added. "It's funny. My wife likes to watch TV shows with doctors in the emergency room. I can't watch that stuff, but I can do this. I guess I just don't think about it."

Before starting a job, they interview families and try to learn if the person who died had hepatitis, HIV or any other infectious disease. And because blood can get into the air, they're quick to respond.

Diamond Chemical & Supply has 27 employees, said Richard Ventresca, president of Diamond Chemical & Supply, adding that some have been with him for 28 years. The company charges anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per job, based on its complexity, he said.

Although cleaning up trauma scenes is not a top career choice among most, the market for companies such as Diamond Chemical is growing across the country.

Firms that clean crime scenes are represented by the American Bio-Recovery Association, a trade group based in Ipswich, Mass., that was founded in 1996 and now has 75 companies as members.

President Dale Cillian said there are hundreds of other companies across the country, some that specialize in crime scene cleanup and others that also offer trauma restoration services.

"I thought about doing something else-but then I wondered, 'What else can I do?' " said Cillian, who owns a crime scene cleanup company in Phoenix.

Board defends role in victim compensation

Proposed overhaul would put decisions in staff's hands

By GINGER GIBSON
The News Journal

DOVER -- Members of the Violent Crimes Compensation Board, a complete overhaul of which was recommended recently by a legislative oversight group, say they are not opposed to making changes in the way they operate, but they want their regulations, not their board, to be revamped.

A task force including victims and victim advocates has been lobbying the Legislature to pass a bill that would overhaul the board, changing its purpose from making decisions about financial compensation for crime victims to simply serving as an appeals board that reviews decisions made by its staff. The overhauls also would move the staff to the supervision of the Department of Justice, rather than reporting solely to the board, and change the way board members are compensated -- replacing their $10,000 to $12,000 salaries with the state's standard rate of $100 per meeting for the board's weekly meetings and eliminating for future members the state pensions current board members receive.

Those pushing for the overhaul cite a long list of problems in their encounters with the board, including delays and wrongful denials.

But members of the board say the problems aren't created by the board itself but by the regulatory restraints placed on them while trying to help victims. "It's a cumbersome process. It could be an easier process," board member Thaddeus Koston said. "We're mandated by the process that is in place."

The board is responsible for doling out funds collected from traffic tickets and fines levied against people convicted of violent crimes. Under state law, those dollars are earmarked to provide money for medical care, lost wages, counseling, crime scene cleanup, moving and other costs for the victims of violent crime, including assault, arson and vehicular crimes.

Leah Betts, vice chairwoman of the board, said often she wishes she could provide more assistance to victims who come before her, but state laws set strict limits on what she can allow.

"We cannot pay for diamond earrings," Betts said, referring to a case the board heard Tuesday in which a robbery victim asked for money to replace stolen jewelry. "We have to make sure we're accountable. Every board member would welcome changes. There are times I've gone home upset because I couldn't help someone."

Legislative delay

The Legislature's Joint Sunset Committee has proposed a complete overhaul of the committee after several victims and advocates showed up at its meetings to express objections to how the board is run. But legislation that would have implemented the changes isn't expected to be heard before the Legislature breaks for the year after June.

Thomas Castaldi, the board's chairman, said putting decisions on how to spend state dollars in the hands of staffers would reduce transparency; the board meets and makes its decisions in public, he said, while the staff would not.

This week, at its weekly Tuesday meeting, it reviewed a dozen applications for compensation one at a time.

For each application, members read a stack of paperwork provided by the board's staff, asked a few questions and then voted on three questions for each: Was the applicant an innocent victim, was the requested compensation related to the crime and would the board award the funds?

The process is done without names to keep the victims' identities confidential and sometimes votes are taken with few details discussed in the public meeting.

Those details, however, can be enough to identify certain cases.

On Tuesday, for example, the board considered an emergency application to provide funeral expenses for a 22-month-old girl from Milford who allegedly was killed by her mother's 19-year-old boyfriend, Carl E. Sewell, earlier this month.

While the board awarded the $8,000 needed for funeral expenses, it did not award the applicant's request to be compensated for lost wages because the person's pay stubs weren't provided. Board members told an investigator working with the family to have the applicant return within the next several months with the proper documentation.

Another application from the family of a man killed in Dover, also seeking funds for the funeral, was denied.

After reading the police report, the committee decided that because the man had crack cocaine on him at the time of his death and police said he was selling the crack cocaine earlier, he did not meet the requirement of being an innocent victim.