Cleanup After a Suicide at Home in Southwest Ohio

First, support for you

Losing someone this way is a shock that does not fit into a checklist. If you, a family member or anyone in the house is having thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 at any hour from Cincinnati, Dayton or anywhere in Ohio. In an emergency, call 911.

Some families in Hamilton and Montgomery counties lean on a funeral director, a faith leader or a friend to make calls for them in the first days. It is fine to hand the cleanup question to someone else, too. They can call this line on your behalf with the address and county.

How the coroner and police are involved

In Ohio every county elects a coroner, a physician who looks into sudden and unexpected deaths. For a home in Cincinnati, Norwood or the Hamilton County townships, that is the Hamilton County Coroner's Office, which now works out of Blue Ash. Dayton, Trotwood and the rest of Montgomery County have their own coroner, and so do Clark, Greene and Miami counties.

Officers from the city, township or sheriff's office stay until the coroner's investigator finishes. Once the person has been taken from the house, officers hand control of it back to the family or the owner. No one from the Dayton Police Department or the coroner's staff cleans the room, and they do not arrange a cleaner. That choice is yours or the property owner's.

What a cleanup crew does

The work is described simply: affected items and materials are removed, surfaces are cleaned and disinfected, and the waste is bagged and hauled as regulated medical waste. In a carpeted bedroom in Fairfield or a finished basement in Centerville, that often means taking up flooring and pad and checking underneath.

Crews can work quietly. Ask the provider for an unmarked vehicle if you are worried about neighbors on a close street in Northside or Oakwood. You can also ask that personal items be boxed and set aside rather than thrown out, so the family can decide later.

Nobody in the family needs to be in the house during the work. A relative, a landlord in Middletown or a property manager can let the crew in and sign the paperwork.

What you can ask the crew to do

• Use an unmarked vehicle when parking on your street
• Box and keep photos, letters, phones and papers rather than discard them
• Walk you through only what you want to know, and nothing more
• Send photos and an itemized invoice straight to your insurance company
• Coordinate entry with an apartment manager in Clifton or Kettering

Before you pick up the phone

Call after police and the coroner's investigator have left and the home is released. If the property is a rental in Oxford near Miami University or near the University of Dayton campus, the landlord or property manager usually needs to approve the work, so bring them in early.

Keep the door closed and leave the room as it is. You do not need to remove anything first. Before you call, note the street address, the county and the name of the homeowner's or landlord's insurance company. Clermont County addresses are only covered in Loveland (45140) and Goshen (45122), and Highland County only in Leesburg (45135) and Lynchburg (45142).

Insurance, estimates and the state fund

Cost depends on how much material has to come out, whether the subfloor or walls are affected, and travel to places like Greenville in Darke County or Wilmington in Clinton County. Ask for a written estimate before anyone starts.

Homeowner's policies in Ohio often respond to this kind of damage to the building, but each insurer and policy reads differently, so call your agent before work begins. If the home is rented, the tenant's renters policy mainly protects belongings, and the landlord's coverage is usually what applies to floors and walls in a Hamilton or Dayton apartment.

Ohio's crime victims compensation fund, run from the Attorney General's office, is meant for victims of crimes, so it usually does not apply after a death by suicide. If anyone tells you otherwise, ask them to show it in writing from the Attorney General's office in Columbus.

Landlords, roommates and shared buildings

When a death happens in an apartment in Clifton, near Miami University in Oxford or in a duplex in Riverside, more people are involved than the family. The landlord controls the unit, roommates may still live there, and neighbors in the building may ask questions.

A landlord in Butler or Montgomery County can hire the cleanup company directly and talk to the insurer for the building, while the family handles personal belongings. Roommates can ask the landlord for a temporary place to stay until the work is done. Anyone in the building who is struggling can call or text 988.

Keep any talk with neighbors short and private. The details of a loss belong to the family, and in a close block of Over-the-Rhine or Oakwood a simple statement that the unit is being repaired is enough.

Personal belongings and what can be kept

Families often worry that everything in the room will be thrown away. That is not the case. Hard items like jewelry, phones, keys and many papers can usually be cleaned and returned, while soft items such as bedding or a soaked chair are more likely to be removed. In homes from Hamilton to Huber Heights, ask the crew to list what is removed so nothing is a surprise.

Some things can wait. If you are not ready to go through boxes, ask the company to pack them and leave them in a closet, a garage in Beavercreek or a relative's home. You can look later, or never. For support while you sort through this, the 988 line is open by call or text.

Questions worth asking any provider in Southwest Ohio

Families from Lebanon to Springfield have the right to ask how the work will be done. A good company will answer with patience and without pressure. If you are having a hard time with any of this, 988 is there by call or text.

• Will you give me a written estimate and scope of work before starting?
• Has each worker on the crew had OSHA bloodborne pathogens training, and can you show it?
• How and where is the waste disposed of, and is there paperwork?
• Can you bill the homeowner's or landlord's insurer directly?
• Who will be my single contact during the job?