Scotland’s crime scene cleaner reveals ‘you see someone’s final moments’ just before death on average day of gruesome job
Marie Fagan - whose daily work involves scrubbing blood, hair and bits of skin - lifts the lid on the gory work, and reveals she unwinds with Law and Order at the end of the day
CRIME scene queen Marie Fagan has lifted the lid on the grisly details behind her industrial cleaning firm MD Trauma Clean.
And these Glasgow ladies are far from afraid of getting stuck into their job – from cleaning drug dens to murder scenes to building sites. This isn’t a job for the faint-hearted.
Director of MD Trauma Marie Fagan said: “When I was really young and NCIS had started on the TV, everybody would be sitting watching it and trying to figure out who did it and I would be sitting there going ‘who’s cleaning that blood?’.
“When we go on scene, the police and the undertakers have already been, but you can see the blood splatter and sometimes there are still pieces of skin or hair hanging about.
“There’s nothing glamorous about it at all.”
After more than ten years in the business, the Glasgow woman reveals there’s been a lot of change in the crime cleaning scene in Scotland.
Marie said: “I was a part of the Crime Scene Queens, a BBC documentary. Basically, I was always really interested in it and I always wondered who did that type of work.
“Eventually, I found a course and I was on it and that was it. It must have been about ten years ago now.
“The job has changed a lot over the years. After the TV show, a lot of people decided to start these companies in Scotland, whereas I had the niche of the market at the time.
“But a lot of these companies don’t have the training we have or the proper clinical bins or don’t dispose of the stuff properly.
“The other aspect of it is that a lot of companies are putting their own staff through training, so staff lift things themselves because more people are aware of it. Society seems to be taking more responsibility for it themselves.”
MD Trauma Clean tackle gruesome bio-hazards around the country. A day on the job could mean removing fly tipping waste or it could mean clearing a death scene.
Despite the number of years MD Trauma Clean has been on the scene, Marie admits that it can still be emotional.
She said: “You have to learn to focus on making it better and less traumatic for the family members going into the room afterwards, so they’re not seeing what you’re seeing.
“Suicides can be quite difficult because you’re seeing someone’s last moments.
"You’re seeing a half glass of wine, a sandwich with a bite out of it or maybe a note, the clothes they had and sometimes you can even still see the shape of them on the bed.
“They can be quite emotional.”
She added: “After appearing on the telly and on the radio, a distraught mother reached out to us about her son.
“She said she had seen the show and she could see the compassion we had and she wanted us to clean up her son’s bedroom.
“That to me was great because that wee woman who was in a traumatic, horrible state could still think that we were these girls who could do it for her and not worry about us going in and doing our jobs.
“We’ve got a really active Facebook page, we get a lot of enquiries from people, but we never push them.
“We’ve had clients who we’ve spoken to for maybe two or three years but we’ve still not gone in yet to get the help they need. It’s important to let them know that we’re there if they need us.
“When they’re ready, we know we’ve built a good rapport with them.”
The crime scene cleaner also admits that sometimes she just has to let her hair down.
Marie said: "Really I just need some me time.
"I like watching Law and Order, just to relax and put everything out of my mind so I can sleep.
"And then next day I face it all again. "
For Marie, building a good relationship with clients is important - particularly those who are in traumatic situations.
Marie said: “That’s what it is all about. We tend to sit with clients for a wee while, we don’t just go in and invade their home and change it all about. We work alongside the client and treat them like a human being.
“Some people think they’re dirty or disgusting, but usually there’s something tragic that’s happened that has got them into that state and we’ve got to keep that in mind.”
The Glasgow woman also admits the situation can be really delicate – and that some people can’t cope.
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Marie added: “People should know that there’s still help out there, because sometimes they don’t know and they’re scared to ask for help.
“There are companies just go in and hash bang and take all the stuff away. People were taking their lives over it because they couldn’t cope.
“It is really important that people know that we’re there. These people are human beings, they’re just like you and I.”
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