For the family and friends left behind
Suicide cleanup in Oxnard
You have enough to carry. The room does not have to be one more thing. A cleanup company can take care of it while you are somewhere else, and can hand the home back without you seeing it as it was.
Phone answered 24/7, day and night
How it can go
You can stay away from the room entirely
Many families ask a friend, a neighbor or a member of their congregation to meet the cleanup company at the door. That is fine. The company needs someone who can let them in and someone with authority to say yes to the work. They need not be the same person.
On the call you can give as little as the room, the type of flooring and whether a firearm was involved. The last matters because of where material travels, and the company will ask it gently. You will not be asked why.
Tell them if there are things in the room you want kept: a letter, a phone, a photograph. Staff used to this work set such items aside rather than discarding them.
Practical points, briefly
The Medical Examiner comes first
Every suicide is investigated by the Medical Examiner’s Office. Property its investigator takes is logged and later released, with the person, to the funeral home the next of kin choose.
Privacy
You can ask the company to arrive without drawing attention, and to speak only with the person you name. Neighbors do not need an explanation.
Cost
Ask your home or renter insurer whether the policy responds. State victim compensation is for crimes, so it generally is not the route here. More on paying.
In the weeks after
The Medical Examiner's page for families keeps a list of grief support groups in Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and other parts of the county, along with a handbook for people who have lost someone this way. It is worth a look when you are ready, not before.
When you are ready, not sooner
The room can wait a day behind a closed door. When you want it dealt with, one call reaches an independent company that does this work around Oxnard.
Talk it over with a cleanup company
Begin wherever you like. The story does not have to come out in order, and you may hang up whenever you want.
Call (805) 946-0050Phone answered 24/7, day and night
Your call may be recorded. Read how we are paid and what we keep.