The Walk-in Closet from Hell

It was like something out of a horror movie. When you entered this cold white room, bloody clothing hung in every corner - shirts, pants, underwear, hoodies....all stained with violence, ruined with bullet holes, slashed by knives, bearing grim, silent witness to the chaos of south Florida's streets. It smelled horrific, as the frigid air conditioning fought a losing battle with the decomposition of body fluids. What is this place? A crime scene? The set of a #Hollywood Halloween film? No. It was a place we #homicide detectives had to visit frequently. We called it "the drying room." Here's what it's all about: Evidence that is damp from biological fluids (like blood) have to be dry for the lab to work on them. They can't be packaged in plastic, otherwise they will degrade and grow bacteria that could ruin the ability for a forensic examiner to conduct tests, such as #DNA profiling. Every piece of bloodstained clothing--including shoes of suspects that had walked in blood--needed to be packaged in paper and properly dried out before the lab will accept it. If they are large items, they get hung up to dry. The drying room had clothes hangers and property receipts for the impounding detectives to properly document all the incoming evidence so it didn't get mixed up with another case. There was a box of medical gloves there for our convenience as well. This is one of those things you never see on your favorite #Netflix series or Hollywood movie. It's one of those unique place that only a few of us--who worked violent crime investigations--got to visit. I sometimes miss the work, the camaraderie I shared with my colleagues, and the excitement of closing a murder case. But it's fair to say I don't miss that place.