Ray Barnes is a former forensic investigator with the State of Maryland Office of The Chief Medical Examiner. Ray Barnes founded the first crime scene clean-up business known worldwide in 1993 and he continues to grow with the help of his dedicated staff and associates.  Below is a list of some of the shows and publications that interviewed him.

"I know what it's like to have a situation with a loved one, I cleaned up after my Grandfather on July 19, 1984. He shot himself after having being diagnosed with metastatic cancer. I was just 22 years old when this occurred. No family member should have to deal with that. Now they don't have to because of people like me, and that gives me great satisfaction. I have met quite a few nice people who have started similar companies across the nation, and I look forward to the future, and continued growth of this industry." ~ Ray Barnes

Ray was also on the television show "Homicide Life on the Street" which was filmed at his office in Baltimore the first and second seasons. 

Oprah Winfrey, The Baltimore Sun Paper and Magazine, Associated Press, Bucks County Courier Times, Trentonian, The Spectator ( Canada ) , Der Spiegel Magazine and T.V. show ( Germany ), T.V. Nation ( Fox T.V. ), M.T.V. , People Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, A.M. Philadelphia, The Northeast Times ( Baltimore ), The City Paper ( Baltimore ), Japanese Shows 98 Rock ( Baltimore ), The Burlington County Times, On Time ( Baltimore ), WJZ T.V. 13 News, WBAL T.V. 11

The Boston Globe | July 27, 1998| Douglas Belkin Douglas Belkin

Douglas Belkin is a Globe correspondent.

FALLSTON, Md. -- Ray Barnes's first case was four years ago, a suicide. An elderly man had killed himself with a shotgun.

"Yeah, I definitely thought I bit off more than I could chew," Barnes said with a smile, between long drags on a Marlboro Red. "But I cleaned it, all of it."

There have been hundreds since then. And homicides.

As founder and CEO of Crime Scene Cleanup, Barnes has been there for almost every one, with sponges and pails, often on his hands and knees, disinfecting and deodorizing.  

Law Enforcement News, December 31, 1996. Say no to gore: Companies clean up at crime scenes A handful of private companies around the country are cleaning up on crime literally by mopping up the blood and gore left at suicide and homicide scenes. With the murder rate rising in Baltimore 160 homicides so far this year, compared with 147 during the same period in 1995 Ray Barnes, says business has never been better.

International Herald Tribune September 19, 1994: After policemen have lifted the last fingerprint and bagged and tagged the last strand of hair, it's Ray Barnes's turn. Mr. Barnes saw opportunity in the gruesome murder scenes he came upon as a forensic investigator in the Maryland state medical examiner's office. Typically, he and his crew pull down blood- spattered wallpaper, incinerate blood-soaked mattresses, wipe off the fingerprint dust the detectives have left on the furniture and vacuum up the chalk outline of the corpse on the carpet. This leaves the family concerned with fewer tangible reminders of tragedy.

Entreprenuer Magazine, November, 1996: Ray Barnes' life changed the moment he arrived at the scene of his grandfather's suicide. (July 19, 1984) "I saw blood and brain matter on the grass," says Barnes. "And I had to decide to do one of two things: turn and walk away or get rid of the mess so my mother and grandmother wouldn't have to see it." When Barnes chose the latter, he never suspected his decision would foreshadow his future in what he grimly calls "the death business." Working at a funeral parlor, then later as a medical examiner investigator, Ray had to tell families of the deceased that no official agency would clean up the scenes of homicides, suicides and accidents. "I don't enjoy doing it," Ray says, "but I enjoy saving families from having to do it themselves." Cleaning up crime With the murder rates in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., outpacing last year?s totals, business has never been better for a man who makes his living cleaning up the blood and gore left behind at the scenes of homicides and suicides. Ray Barnes, a former investigator for the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office, Ray Barnes and his employees don gas masks and high-tech protective gear to shield them from HIV and other blood-borne pathogens while they clean up the visible signs of crime. You could have someone who would shoot themselves in the head with a .38, said Barnes. That, in some cases, would not be very messy. But some people prefer to shoot themselves with a shotgun, in which case you have the whole room saturated.