“The hallway is a sea of mail and fast food flyers. A narrow pathway has been cut through the middle of it by the feet and legs of police and paramedics, leaving knee-high mounds to either side.
“This is what you get when time stands still, when no one knows or cares that there’s no longer anyone at home.”
From The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill.
Crime scenes are the kind of place that most people would never want to see.
I’ve stood on the other side of the tape countless times, seeking information on the gory scenes inside. Sometimes a friendly cop would give a fleeting insight into what lay behind the tape and the closed door.
“It’s a bad one.” Or “It’s like a butcher’s shop in there.”
These bloody scenes are nightmares to most of us but meat and drink to forensics and detectives who can harvest all sorts of clues among the gore. Many cases are solved by what’s found inside.
But once the cops and the SOCOs go home, what next? Who cleans up the mess?
The world of the crime scene tidy-up experts has been in the public eye thanks to hit BBC One comedy The Cleaner, starring the ever-present Greg Davies.
It is also the subject of a new book from a favourite author. The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is the latest from Craig Robertson, writing as CS Robertson, and delves deep into the world of those who mop up blood, clean human flesh from walls and body fluids from floors.
The book is a brilliant read but it also gives a real insight into what happens when the police leave.
The scene that’s left behind is potentially deadly, littered with lethal pathogens, and it is cleaners like Grace McGill who have to make it safe.
The book concentrates on older people dying lonely deaths and Grace begins to realise that there is a connection and delves deeper.
Craig, who was a journalist for more than 20 years, has done his research and the end product is a twisty, chilling but respectful dark offering that gives us an insight into a hidden world.
When I asked Craig what made him think of such an unusual storyline, he said: “I wanted to know what it said about society that people could die without anyone noticing. And I wanted to know about the person that had to clean up the mess.
“I was fascinated, and horrified, at news stories of people who’d died alone at home and whose bodies lay undiscovered for months.”
Craig’s book left me feeling like I wanted to know more about this world, so I contacted Marie Fagan who owns
industrial cleaning firm MD Trauma.
Marie has been “biohazard cleaning” for almost 15 years and there is nothing she hasn’t seen.
It’s not a job for the faint-hearted and I could tell that every single case which she has worked on has stayed with her.
“There’s nothing glamorous about my job but we’re helping people. Sometimes the police ask us to clean up scenes but more often than not, it’s the families themselves.
“The police and the undertakers have been and gone and we’re left to clean up and sometimes that’s blood, skin, hair or all of them.
“You can’t help but feel sad when you see pieces of the life which they’ve left behind. A half-eaten sandwich, a cup of coffee, a picture on the wall.
“But our focus is on making it less traumatic for the families.
“You don’t want them to see what you’re seeing.
“The saddest cases are the suicides and the older people who have been lying for a long time. I remember them all.”
When we think of crime-fighting, we think of the police and the CSIs – the so-called “sexy” side of investigations and policing.
It can be a gruesome gruelling job and it takes a strong person to go to work knowing it’s the worst day of their client’s lives. For me, they are the real unsung heroes of an unsung tragedy.
