A Bonita Springs couple is making the most of their job as crime scene cleaners

Edward McCarthy knows he and his wife Carissa Cuevas are not your average married couple—they make their money cleaning up after rats and bugs, but their specialty is crime scenes.

“Not your average person can clean that up and throw it away in the trash,”  said Carris Cuevas.

Cleaning a crime scene is a grim and sensitive job. The couple once got the call after a killer got inside a Fort Myers home and beat a woman to death. Carissa met with the victim’s daughter and felt her pain.

“She spent the day talking about it, and talking about really some of the good times she had in the house rather than what had transpired that day,” Carissa said.

“She stays out and she’s consoling and talking through everything, and I might be suited up and I’m in there working,” Edward said.

They chose this work because they realized they’ll always be needed. “Every time the phone rings you never know it was on the other side of it so that makes it exciting,” she said.

“Whether it’s water or mold, whether there’s someone passing, a crime scene… these are all scenarios that are out there no matter what’s going on around us, so from a business perspective that’s something that’s kind of interesting,” McCarthy said.

This video from their YouTube channel shows a glimpse of what they do most days.

 

“There’s more rat droppings than there are cat droppings in the kitty litter.”

“He’s dried out ohh it’s his tail I thought he was on a stick or something,” said Cuevas.

The couple says they try not to think too much about the sadness they see, or what they clean up; they just do the job. “We’re not here to judge we’re here to help this person,” Cuevas said.

“It’s really about what we are able to hand over to somebody when it’s over,” McCarthy said.