The hard-luck man pulled in to the convenience store in Marietta. Short of funds to pay child support and put food on his table, he incorrectly surmised that this was the best course of action.  He was bright enough to know not to pull his vehicle up to any outside video cameras as he had cased the parking lot earlier. What he failed to do was to cover his head.  He went in to the store when no one was in there besides the clerk. He proceeded to the counter and pulled out his weapon. When the clerk attempted to move his hand to a position beneath the counter, the robber unloaded two shots blasting his shoulder and hitting some merchandise. He threatened the clerk demanding he open the safe and give him all of the money. The clerk complied giving him over $900, the amount accumulated since the last removal of cash in the morning.

The robber escaped to his vehicle and began to ride away as the injured clerk, losing blood, presses the button under his counter alerting the police. They come in minutes and order an ambulance to take the clerk for medical help. On the way a police detective interviews him and gets a description. He returns to the store and views the videotape. A crime scene clean up company, called in by the police began to clean the mess left by the robber. As they are cleaning up the area by the counter, they notice a small speck of blood missed by the police as it was so small. Apparently, he had scratched himself on a metal appendage attached to the counter when he drew his gun. One of the employees of the crime scene clean up company showed this to the police. As this crime scene clean up company frequently conducts suicide scene cleanups, meth lab cleanups, odor removal cleanups and other death scene cleanups as well as blood and trauma scene cleanups, they have experience working with police and identifying substances.

The police ran the blood for DNA analysis and compared it to samples they had in storage at the county jail. A previous defendant whose photograph matched the image in the convenient store’s video footage was identified. An address for the man was found at the courthouse and the perpetrator was arrested and convicted. In this instance, give a big shout out to the crime scene clean up company that helped the police solve the armed robbery.

This information was originally published as part of the Crime Scene Cleanup blog at http://www.advancedbio-treatment.com/blog.

For more information about our suicide scene remediation services, contact Advanced Bio-Treatment toll free at 800-860-4268.