Human Decompositions

Most people ask me what the worse thing I have ever seen is on a job. I must say its probably a human decomposition. There is no other smell like the smell of death. I remember when I was in the police academy and was required to do my ride alongs. I accompanied some detectives to an old folks independent living facility. When I got off the elevator to the 4th floor I immediately smelled something repulsive. I thought it smelled like rotten eggs. However, it didn't have that spoiled food smell, but it was the only thing I recognized that might have come close to the smell of death. When the detectives opened the door I saw a man, who appeared to be in his 60's lying on the floor. The smell was overwhelming. The man's stomach was enormous, bloated with gases. His legs and arms were blue. His face pasty. His bowels had released and there was a pool of feces and urine lying beneath him. The detectives immediately cupped their ties around their noses to get some type of barrier between their nose and the obnoxious smell. Being the first decomp that I had ever been on the smell for me was unbearable.

Once the funeral home arrived to pick up the body they rolled out the body bag and unzipped it. One guy picked up the old man's arms, while the other grabbed the ankles. The guy that picked up the arms got a surprise. The old mans skin immediately fell off and body fluids leaked out. The smell immediately worsened as if a can of old spoiled meat was just opened. The tried another method. Just roll the guy into the bag. The fluids remained along with the smell in that room. At that time I never wondered what happened to the remains after the body was removed. I was too wrapped up in police work to even consider it.

Fast forward 10 yrs later and I am cleaning these scenes up for a living. I have become accustomed to the smell and about half the time I don't need a respirator. Every once in awhile, about once a month, we will get a decomp where the person has been unattended for a month or so. I always wonder how a person can go unattended, never missed for such a long time. One particular job made me ponder these very questions. An elderly community in the Tampa metro area, a woman died and was left unattended for 3 to 4 wks. I received a call from the victim's son. He was very irritated that one of my competitors had read about the death either in the obituaries, or figured it out because he's a fire fighter. This individual called the deceased relatives in Michigan and TN to try to get this job. The guy was so put off by this he told my competitor to stop calling him, and that he would not get the job. Hence the reason he called Spaulding decon. We get a lot of work from our creative marketing, and we definitely don't ambulance chase, or result to other stupid tactics to get jobs.

We responded to the residence and met with the son. He was leaving town the next day and requested the house be cleaned up and completely cleaned out. We are able to provide this service as well. The woman was dead in the master bedroom on the floor. She leaked through the bedding, through the carpet and padding onto the wood sub flooring. The smell was horrific. Her entire body imprint was on the wood sub floor. It was amazing. A perfect human outline, as you would see written in concrete by the police with chalk. This outline, however was sketched in black. Needless to say it was a job that took many processes for odor control, and many stages.

Visit www.spauldingdecon.com for your unattended death clean up scenes.