Sibling duo cleans up after the dead

By Jeff Weisinger Staff Writer

BRENTWOOD After spending the first three decades of their professional lives working behind a desk as a banker and as an analyst, Mary and Mike McIntosh were ready for a change of scenery.

In May 2016, the sibling duo left their office jobs and started the Diablo Crime Scene Cleaners Inc., (DCSC) a company that cleans up crime scenes, mainly scenes of death.

“I didn’t know if I would be okay with gore,” Mike McIntosh said. “And then it just happened. I started my first job and you just get used to it.”

Mary got the idea after a regular customer at the bank where she worked started crime scene cleanup in Orinda. She was fascinated by it. And since she and her brother were ready for a new challenge professionally, both decided to step into the scene.

“It’s absolutely fascinating,” Mary McIntosh said. “For one, it’s different. We really wanted a better work-life balance. We wanted to find a way that we could help people and be valuable to the community and make money, to be quite frank.”

They definitely make their money. The pair charge $1,000 minimum followed by a rate of anywhere from $250$550 an hour on the weekends.

Mary and Mike started with private clients who would call in after seeing their ad on Google, although those calls would come few and far in between.

“People find us on Google when they search ‘blood cleanup,’” McIntosh said. “A lot of times the police will recommend us any time there’s anything from a car accident to an unattended death.”’

In 2019, DCSC landed their first big contract with the Contra Costa County Of fice of the Sheriff.

They developed their reputation working with Contra Costa County cleaning the jails, including on Christmas Day during the COVID-19 pandemic where they cleaned 42 jail cells.

Contra Costa found out about DCSC like everyone else did before: through Google.

“They liked our website,” Mike said. “(Contra Costa County) basically just Googled us and the sergeant called Mary and talked for about 15 minutes, and the rest is history.”

“During COVID, it was pretty hard,”

Mary said. “We were doing the jails three times a day, wiping down all the common areas and it was just the two of us. So we were at Martinez county jail three times a day, plus (on-scene) jobs. The inmates like to paint with feces on the walls if they’re frustrated. And we’d go in and clean that up.”

Along with Contra Costa, DCSC has also been under contract with Oakland since last year and now handles all of the Bay Area, although they’re not the only company out there, joining the likes of Crime Scene Cleaners in Orinda and 911 Hazmat Cleanup. Companies like these are easy to find on Google by simply searching “crime scene cleanup.”

“It was very difficult to get started,” Mary said. “(The contract with Contra Costa) really put us on the map.”

Now with a staff of their own, Mary and Mike have learned how to balance their staff and where to send them to, and which situations to not send them to.

“We’ve got some guys on our team that have families, they’ve got children,” Mary McIntosh said. “I wouldn’t ask them to respond to a scene involving a child, that would be something that Mike and I would do. Everybody is really different in what their stresses are.”

The DCSC also gives their team extensive training. They go over proper fittings of the personal protective equipment along with what chemicals to use to clean the blood and how to use them, how those on the scene can protect themselves from blood and feces, and they also offer Hepatitis A and B shots to keep their staff as protected as possible, the couple said.

“The most important thing, part of our job is to protect (themselves and their staff),” Mary said.

DCSC can be reached at diablocrimescenecleaners.com and at 925933-8407.

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