You'll need strong stomach for this hideously fascinating documentary
WHEN you walk in the first thing that hits you is the smell. Then the flies and maggots. This was Lauren Baker, one of the crime scene cleaners of the title, matter-of-factly describing her job. You need a strong stomach for this kind of work. Ditto watching a documentary about it.
There have been a few programmes on the subject (plus the Greg Davies sitcom), such is the public's fascination with crime and gore. But rarely do they get as up close and stomach-churning as this ten-parter. Dividing its time between the US and UK, viewers were promised a look 'beyond the police tape'.
In Kent, Lauren was dealing with 'an unattended death in a bungalow', a very British-sounding tragedy if ever there was one. The (decomposed) body had been removed, no foul play suspected, leaving Lauren and her team to clear and clean the place. A running commentary went through the various hazards and the nasty things they could do to anyone not covered head to foot in PPE.
For Lauren, we were told, cleaning wasn't just physical. 'She also performs a ritual to cleanse the space spiritually'. This consisted of opening a window (a given, you might have thought) and saying 'go and be free'. One to file under W for 'Whatever gets you through the day', perhaps.
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In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the cleaners had their own home-grown scourge to deal with - fentanyl. Its microscopic particles get everywhere, including the lungs, so when a car came in with a bullet hole in the window and a strong suspicion that it had been used to run drugs, it was all hands to the cleaning sprays.
Back in Kent, Lauren was piecing together the deceased's life from the things left behind. 'Something to do with Kent highways,' she thought. 'Everyone's got a story, haven't they?'
Her story included starting her own business after a spell of bar work. She has made a success of it, bringing up a family on the way. Now she wouldn't trade the job for another in 'a million years'. Her late dad would have been proud, she says, justifiably.
In Los Angeles there was a trail of blood to be followed. Not as bad as the one that was a mile long - that took a whole crew working through the night - but enough.
Various talking heads, forensic specialist this and former cop that, walked viewers through the scene. Though some were experts in the bleedin' obvious - 'without blood you don't live' - a few made interesting points. The blood could not simply be sluiced away, for instance, or it would enter the water supply.
The cleaners did a meticulous job; the places were transformed. Then it struck you: all this effort was being expended to sell the property on, or allow residents to move back in. Life went on. 'This will make a really lovely home for someone,' said Lauren.
Irrational or not, it was a chilling thought.
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