A professional crime scene cleaner who encounters people’s worst nightmares on a daily basis has revealed what job ‘lives in her mind’.
As part of a new Channel 4 series, Crime Scene Cleaners shows a behind-the-scenes look at a group of unsung heroes who battle hazardous situations and decomposed bodies.
Looking at different cleaning teams from Kent, Reading, Somerset and Newcastle to Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, we see what crime scene cleaners do following murders, attacks or overdoses in drug dens.
Among the cleaning experts featured in the series is Lauren Baker, a trauma cleaning expert based in Kent, who brings years of experience to some of the most harrowing and dangerous scenes imaginable.
Speaking to Metro, Lauren explained how she first became involved in the business.
‘I originally tried to give biohazard cleaning a go and did a course, then I didn’t realise that these other elements – like cleaning dead bodies – came with it until we actually went and trained,’ the mother-of-two said.
‘The first job I ever did was a suicide. I went straight in at the deep end and it’s always stuck with me because it was very, very calculated. The person had planned every step and left notes saying not to come in and we had to tell the family.
‘So yeah, that lives in my head quite a lot. I’ll never forget that. And there are other tough cases as well where I’ve come home and had a little cry in the shower and I’ve taken it home with me. But I am very headstrong and most of the time I’m able to come home, sit on the sofa and switch off.’
Discussing the most shocking moments she has dealt with, Lauren added: ‘You’ve got to be slightly tapped in the brain to do this job. You have got to be mentally strong.
‘I didn’t always have a strong stomach at first, I had to develop it. I used to gag quite a bit but I learnt that on the job.
‘I’ve never refused to go in somewhere. The worse the better I think because I get a better satisfaction out of it.
‘But in some cases there have been times where the smell of death just hits you and I’ve had to walk out for a second.
‘The smell of death is so distinctive, it’s like nothing else. I don’t even know how to describe it to you.
‘Sometimes after really bad cases I’ve gone home and washed myself three or four times but I can still smell it on my skin. Even though it’s psychological I sometimes have to use dettol on my skin.’
Lauren went on to say: ‘I’m not really shocked anymore… But don’t put a spider in front of me. I will have a meltdown. That’s the only time I get really shocked or like when a rat runs across your foot.’
Discussing whether it has affected her relationships, Lauren added that people only seem to be interested in talking about it to her.
But, she added that her partner has to keep reminding her not to talk about dead bodies when they sit down for dinner.
She also said this Channel 4 series is a way for her to push the word out there that people like her are not just cleaners, they are there for people in their darkest moments.
Across 10 episodes the series tracks elite specialists from the UK to the US and features detectives and other forensic specialists who unpack the crime and analyse the scene.
As well as cleaning up the mess, the cleaners help people get back to normal after the most traumatic events imaginable.
Crime Scene Cleaners – starts 10pm, Monday 30 June or stream all episodes on Channel 4.
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