Crime and Trauma Scene Cleanup in Shelton, WA

After a crime, a serious injury or a death by suicide in Shelton, the cleanup is done by an independent biohazard cleanup company that the family or property owner hires directly. First, police, and the Mason County Coroner¹ if someone died, must finish their work and release the property. Biohazard Network does not do this work; we connect you with an independent local company so you can talk with it and decide.

If you are struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, confidential emotional support. You can call, text or chat with a counselor anytime, day or night, including if you are worried about a loved one.

What this cleanup involves

What you are facing is hard, and you do not have to handle it yourself. This cleanup removes and disinfects what was left behind after an assault, a homicide, a break-in where someone was hurt, a serious accident, or a suicide. It deals with biohazards, which are materials that can carry germs that make people sick, and especially bloodborne pathogens, which are germs in blood that can spread through contact.

Household cleaning is not enough. Blood can soak into porous materials, meaning things like carpet, padding, drywall and upholstered furniture that absorb liquid, and wiping the surface leaves contamination underneath while exposing the person cleaning. The company’s crew does this work so no one in your family has to see or handle anything.

What happens first in Shelton

Police control the property first, and if someone died, the Mason County Coroner¹ is also involved. A coroner is a county official who investigates certain deaths; here, the coroner determines and certifies the cause and manner of death for deaths from any unnatural cause, suspicious or unexplained deaths, unattended deaths and several other kinds.

Scene release means police and, where involved, the coroner have finished and handed the property back to you.

While you wait:

• Do not clean, move or throw away anything in the affected area.
• Keep children, pets and visitors away from it.
• Ask officers for the report number and keep a copy of the report.
• With questions about the coroner’s role, contact the Mason County Coroner¹ at 360-427-9670 ext 752.

Autopsy reports are confidential, but family members may examine and obtain copies; copies of death certificates come from Mason County Public Health² and the Washington State Department of Health.

What to expect from the company you hire

Ask the company to explain its plan before work starts, including:

• Protective equipment for its crew, such as gloves, suits and respirators.
• Containment, which means sealing off the affected area so contamination does not spread.
• Removal of contaminated porous materials, which cannot be fully cleaned.
• Disinfection, which means using products that kill germs on remaining hard surfaces.
• Odor work after the source is gone (see odor remediation in Shelton).
• Records: photos, a written scope of work and an itemized invoice for your insurer.

Biomedical waste is Washington’s legal term for certain listed waste, including discarded human blood, materials containing free-flowing blood, and sharps waste, meaning needles, syringes, scalpel blades and lancets removed from their sterile packaging. Rules of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission require a company collecting, transporting and disposing of biomedical waste to keep an operating plan that holds it separate from other solid waste, so ask in writing how it will leave the property.

Before you hire, ask how the company’s crew follows OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard³, 29 CFR 1910.1030, and the ANSI/IICRC S540 Standard for Trauma and Crime Scene Cleanup, a standard from the IICRC, a non-profit organization for the inspection, cleaning and restoration industries. You can also look the business up with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) tool called Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business, and Biohazard Cleanup Certifications Explained walks through what these mean.

After a death by suicide

If your loved one died by suicide, please be gentle with yourself. The funeral home you choose cares for your loved one and the arrangements; the cleanup company takes care of the property, so you need not return to the affected area until the work is done. If privacy matters, ask the company how its vehicles are marked and how it answers neighbors.

For property managers and employers

After an accident at a rental, shop or office, keep tenants, staff and customers away from the area and do not ask employees to clean it. Afterward, ask the company for written records of what was removed, what was disinfected and how waste left the site. If repairs follow, the City of Shelton’s Community and Economic Development department reviews development applications for code compliance.

Does insurance cover crime and trauma scene cleanup?

Homeowners insurance sometimes covers this work, depending on the policy. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner⁴ (OIC) says you can ask your agent or insurance company whether a loss is covered without filing a claim. For a loss due to a crime, the OIC says to notify police and keep a copy of the report. Read anything a company asks you to sign, since the OIC warns that an assignment of benefit form could affect your rights; you also have the right to choose your own contractor for covered repairs.

Renters should know a landlord’s policy does not cover their personal property. Do not throw damaged belongings away yet, because the insurer may want to inspect them.

Washington’s Crime Victims Compensation Program⁵, run by L&I⁵, does not pay for crime scene cleanup; L&I lists it among costs not covered. The program may pay for other costs, such as mental health treatment, grief counseling and funeral expenses, when a person was physically injured or mentally traumatized by a gross misdemeanor or felony in Washington that was reported to law enforcement, with cooperation in the investigation. It pays only after primary insurance.

Reaching a Shelton property

The SR 3 corridor runs from the US 101 junction at Shelton to Belfair and gives a direct route between Mason and Kitsap counties, and the stretch of US 101 from Shelton north toward Port Ludlow is the only north-south route on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. Ask which route a company will use and when it can realistically arrive, whether the property is near Kneeland Park or elsewhere in the city. If someone was taken to Mason General Hospital, which has a 24-hour emergency department, you can make these calls from there. For public health questions, contact Mason County Public Health and Human Services² at 360-427-9670 ext. 869.

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