On the scene: Pasadena family business cleans up after injuries, accidents

Just as they always do, they pulled up for work in an unmarked truck, towing an unmarked trailer, this time in front of a row house on a Baltimore City street. Karen and Brett were discreet, but in a tight neighborhood such as this one, there wasn't much need to be low-key.

Most everyone on the block seemed to already know what had happened.

The two entered the home and assessed the work ahead of them - a body had been decomposing for about a week inside the bedroom, with no air conditioning pulsing through its corridors. The stale heat that broke records last month cloaked every room.

For Karen, Brett and the other employees of Bio-Scene Solutions of Pasadena, the job always begins where something awful ends. And after authorities arrive to remove most of a deceased's remains in a zipped-up body bag, they're there to pick up the pieces.

"This is someone's family, and we're always very sorry for their loss," Karen said. "Someone has to be there to clean it up. We do it with dignity."

Along with the help of husband Scott, Brett and Brett's wife, Kim, Karen incorporated her family crime-scene cleaning business in 2007. Since then, Bio-Scene Solutions has decontaminated sites after incidents as minor as a nose bleed on a light rail car or someone's busted colostomy bag to dog-fighting arenas, homicides, suicides and unattended deaths.

Crime-scene cleaners play an important role in public health and safety. A Maryland Department of the Environment spokeswoman said there are no state regulations on disposal of biological waste from homes because the amount is usually very small - for example, a used bandage.

Getting started

Karen is a full-time registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente, and Brett has been a county firefighter for 20 years.

"As a little kid, I knew I wanted to be in a medical field," Karen said. "I just got to thinking one day, 'Who cleans up this kind of stuff?' "

Already having experience with bloodborne pathogens and Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, it wasn't such a leap when she took special weeklong training in South Carolina and became a member of the American Bio-Recovery Association. She plunked about $35,000 into start-up costs for her equipment, cleaning products and protective Hazmat suits, splash shields, booties and gloves.

Then she sent letters to insurance companies, letting them know there was a new crime-scene cleaner in the Maryland-Washington, D.C.-Virginia area.

Several competitors, such as ServPro, Crime Scene Clean-up and Aftermath also serve in Maryland. Bio-Scene Solutions is just a little independent operation, up against some giant national franchises and firms with several fleets and locations.

To give an example, ServPro, which not only handles biohazard sites but fire and other disaster damage, has more than 1,500 franchises nationwide including Pasadena, and as a corporation, has made $1 billion in revenue over the past 40 years.

But that hasn't stopped Karen's business from growing. The small staff takes on about two cases per month, so far ranging from $500 to $11,000 each.

"I'm getting ready to be in the black," Karen said of her business investment.

For these types of messes, club soda and salt won't do. There's bleach, peroxide, heavy chemicals and even enzymes - "to get the thick stuff up." With every piece of biohazardous waste having to fit in special bags and 2-by-2-by-3 foot boxes, saws and bolt cutters are among the tools necessary to break down contaminated items.

The staff often has to chop up pieces of furniture, like a stained mattress and box spring, and properly contain them before a contracted waste removal company comes to haul them for disposal.

Occupational hazards

Compared to many other kinds of start-ups, hers was a fairly low-cost commitment; rather, the commitment that matters more in her line of work is the one to her stomach's fortitude. Though blood splatters don't make her squeamish, she admits to having a sensitive nose, one that sometimes renders her on the verge of vomiting, even in her double-filtered mask.

Brett admits few people have the wherewithal to work in such conditions, but day-to-day exposure to death, tragedy and plenty of blood as a paramedic has helped desensitize him while on his side-job.

"What I've seen or done that day - it's just something that I never went home and stressed about," he said. "We're exposed to it all the time on our full-time jobs. Certainly the things we do there eclipse everything we see here."

People in their field get to a point of speaking bluntly, even pragmatically, about the macabre:

Brain matter and fatty tissue are the hardest things to clean up because they're oily and not water soluble.

The bathroom is the worst room to find a dead body because of all the cracks and crevices in the tiles and around the sink, toilet and tub to clean.

The work only really catches up with Karen when she passes the family photo on the wall and can associate a face and a life to the disaster.

"That's when it sometimes hits me. I find more now (that I'm) asking myself, 'Why?' Why would they do this?' " she said.

Brett said the most uncomfortable part for him can be the rooting around in someone's private space. A common case is a death of an obsessive-compulsive hoarder, which the industry has come to term "trash houses."

Along their way, the Howes have discovered many oddities, such as 1,000 pickle jars or a sock full of money and credit cards buried in the toe of a shoe.

"You learn a lot about people's lives by what they leave behind," Brett said.

The average person may not think that crime-scene cleaning could be a growing field, as there aren't a lot of "repeat customers." But Karen has aspirations for expanding her business. She'd like to take on more cases, explore the options of getting into body removal and receive training on handling rodents and other animals.

Regardless of how much their business grows, consumers won't catch the Howes advertising with big billboards, labeled vehicles or photos of their work. Their business is private, personal stuff.

"The harbingers of death that we are," Brett said candidly, followed by a beat of silence.

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esauers@capitalgazette.com