Killer fumes, tragic suicide notes & rotting corpses bulging with maggots…my life as a crime scene cleaner

The Sun

13 hours ago

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.
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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.'
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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.
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