For families and friends
Suicide cleanup in Santa Maria
We are sorry you are reading this page. There is one practical thing it can do for you: make sure that you, and everyone who loved this person, never have to clean that room.
Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
What happens before any cleaning
A suicide is one of the deaths the Sheriff-Coroner is required to look into, so officers and a coroner's investigator will have been to the home. They decide when the room is released. Until then it stays closed.
After that, the choice of what to do with the room is the family's. Nothing obliges you to act the same day. If the door can be shut, it can wait until you have slept.
On the phone you can say very little
The company needs four facts: the town, the kind of room, whether the scene has been released and who will open the door. It does not need to know why, and no one will ask you to describe what you saw.
If speaking is too much, ask a friend, a pastor or a neighbour to make the call for you. That is common, and the company will work with whoever you name.
Privacy, and what the neighbours see
Tell the company if discretion matters. Ask whether the vehicle carries lettering, whether the crew suits up indoors or on the driveway, and what time of day they would come. These are ordinary questions and a considerate company will have answers.
Ask also about belongings. Letters, a phone, a watch, a favourite jacket: say which things you want kept, and which you would prefer never to see again. The crew can separate them without you being in the room.
Paying for it
California's victim compensation benefit for cleanup is written for crimes, so after a suicide the usual places to ask are the home or renters insurance policy and, in a rental, the landlord. Insurers differ. Phone yours, say what happened in plain words and ask whether the policy responds.
The company should give you its price in writing before work starts. The guide to paying for cleanup explains what drives that price.
Questions families have asked
Does someone from the family have to be present?
Only to let the crew in and agree what is to be done, and a trusted friend can do that in your place.
It happened in a car. Is that handled the same way?
Yes, by the same kind of company. See the page on vehicle cleanup for where the car may be and who to ask about it.
How soon should the room be cleaned?
Sooner is easier on the building, because fluids keep moving into flooring. But a day or two to gather yourselves is not unusual. Keep the door closed in the meantime.
Whenever suits you
Hand the room to people whose trade this is
Two sentences about the situation are plenty. You then hear how the firm would tackle it and what it would bill. Yes or no is yours alone to say, today or next week.
The number for Santa Maria and the valley
Whoever picks up belongs to a cleanup firm that takes jobs from Guadalupe up to Grover Beach. It is a separate business from this website. Name your town, say what sort of place it is, and ask anything.
Call (805) 362-1926Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
The call may be recorded. How this works is set out in the referral disclosure.