After a Death at Home in Southwest Ohio

The first calls, and why hospice deaths are different

If the death was sudden or you are not sure what happened, dial 911 from the house in Westwood, Kettering, Lebanon or wherever you are. A dispatcher will send medics and the local police department or county sheriff's deputies. You do not need to call the coroner yourself; the responding officers notify that office.

A death that hospice expected is handled more quietly. Families in Hamilton, Montgomery and the other counties usually call the hospice nurse first, who confirms the death and contacts the funeral home. The coroner is often not involved at all when the person was under a physician's care for a known illness.

Either way, try to keep other people and pets out of the room where the person was found. Leave things as they are until officers say otherwise. Moving items can make the investigation harder and can spread contamination to other rooms of the house.

What the county coroner does here

Ohio does not use a medical examiner system in this part of the state. Voters in all 19 counties here pick their own coroner, and chapter 313 of the Ohio Revised Code says that person has to be a doctor. The Hamilton County office sits on Carver Woods Drive in Blue Ash, and Montgomery County's shares its West Third Street building in Dayton with the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory.

Coroners look into deaths that are violent, suspicious, unusual, or that happen suddenly to someone who seemed healthy. The Clark County coroner's page lists jobs such as confirming identity, notifying family and safeguarding the person's possessions. Investigators may come to the house to gather information before the person is taken to the morgue or the funeral home.

Our county coroner guide has a table of all 19 offices and the town each sits in. Say your mother's place is in Troy or Wilmington and you live three states away. Find her county in that table, and you will know which office holds her belongings and her paperwork.

What police and the coroner leave behind

This surprises many families in Butler and Greene counties and everywhere else: neither the police nor the coroner cleans the home. Their work ends when the investigation is done and the person has been taken into care. Nothing in the coroner's list of duties covers removing stained flooring or treating odor.

After release, the house in Springfield or Middletown is back under the control of whoever is responsible for it. For an owner-occupied home that is usually the surviving spouse or the estate. For an apartment in Clifton or Five Oaks it is usually the landlord, working with the tenant's family on belongings.

If officers or investigators are still deciding whether a crime happened, they may keep the scene closed for a while. Ask the detective or the deputy assigned to the case when the home will be released and whether any rooms must stay untouched.

Safe steps to take before any cleanup starts

Once the home is released, family members in Fairfield, Xenia and similar places often feel they should tidy up right away. Please hold off on scrubbing or throwing out anything that was in contact with body fluids. Those materials need to be removed by people with protective gear and disposed of as regulated waste, not set out with the household trash on collection day.

There are still useful things you can do from the doorway of the affected room. Make a list of what you see and take photos for the insurance company. Collect papers, keys, phones and medicines from unaffected parts of the house so they are not lost later.

A short checklist for the first day after release

• Close off the room where the death happened; kids and dogs stay out.
• Turn off fans that blow air from that room toward the rest of the house.
• Photograph the room and any damaged items before anything is moved.
• Call the homeowners, renters or landlord insurance company and ask for a claim number.
• If the home is a rental, tell the landlord or property manager in writing.
• Gather wills, deeds, account statements and spare keys from clean areas.
• Ask any cleanup company you contact for a written scope of work before work begins.

What a cleanup company actually does

The work in a house in Mason or Huber Heights follows a plain sequence. The crew that takes the job inspects the room, sets up containment so nothing spreads, removes affected materials such as carpet, pad and sometimes subfloor or drywall, then cleans and disinfects the surfaces left behind. Odor treatment and testing come at the end.

Waste from this kind of job is packed and handled as regulated medical waste rather than ordinary trash. A reputable provider will tell you how that waste leaves the property and where it goes. Repairs such as new flooring are usually a separate step, often handled by a general contractor once the room is clean.

Before you agree to anything, ask whether the workers are trained under the federal OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard, how they handle personal items they find, and whether they will work with your insurance adjuster in Dayton or Cincinnati. Get the answers and the price in writing.

Paying for it

Many homeowners policies sold in Ohio can respond to this kind of damage, but it really comes down to the wording of the specific policy and the cause of the loss. In an apartment in Clifton or Five Oaks, the tenant's renters plan is mostly about furniture and clothes; walls and floors are a matter for the owner's insurer. Our insurance guide walks through what to ask your agent.

If a crime caused the death, the state fund in Columbus may repay an eligible family or estate for part of the cleanup, with a $750 limit on that item. The victims compensation guide explains who can apply and the three-year filing window in Ohio law.

After a death by suicide

When a family member in Hamilton or Montgomery County died by suicide, the steps above still apply, and the coroner's office will handle the investigation. Cleanup crews are asked to work discreetly, and you can ask the company to use an unmarked vehicle and keep the job quiet from neighbors.

Grief after a suicide can be overwhelming for the people left behind. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline takes calls and text messages at 988 any time, for anyone in Ohio who is struggling or worried about someone, including family members after a loss.

Where this referral line comes in

This line does not clean homes. Pick the number by where the house stands, not where you live. Homes from the Ohio River north through Hamilton, Butler and Warren, plus Brown, Clinton and the served corners of Clermont and Highland, go through (513) 962-0944. Homes around Dayton, Springfield, Troy, Xenia and the rest of the northern counties use (937) 200-8811, and the line hands you off to a separate company that works in that county.

Some counties are only partly covered. Across the Little Miami in Clermont, the line takes only two ZIPs, 45140 around Loveland and 45122 at Goshen, and stops short of Milford and Batavia. In Highland County only Leesburg and Lynchburg are served, not Hillsboro. Columbus, Northern Kentucky and Indiana are outside the service area entirely.