Morgue Photographer Stories: Washing Bodies, Skeletons, and Decomp Season

• 8:39Tim wiped asses at the morgue, initially hired as a photographer.
• 9:10Before he arrived, there was a strict divide where photographers didn't do cleaning work.
• 9:36Tim volunteered to clean bodies himself rather than ask others, refusing to be seen as squeamish.
• 10:14He'd offer to wash down bodies when staff were busy with multiple cases at once.
• 11:17Job responsibilities at the morgue weren't clearly delineated between roles.
• 12:02Decomposed bodies come in depending on the season, and summer causes faster decay.
• 12:24Skeletonized remains get brought in after maggots and decomposition leave just bones.
• 12:40A doctor once ripped a skeleton's head off and handed it to him to x-ray instead of moving the whole body.
• 13:17Summer decomp is like mushy rotten apples on the ground, while winter bodies decompose more slowly.
• 14:32Funeral homes pushed back when he digitally fixed up decomposed and mangled bodies for ID photos, since they'd already shown families the improved pictures.
• 15:07Bodies at funerals look disturbing and nothing like the person did in life—heavily made up and drained of all vitality.

Suffolk County Medical Examiner