Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Sedalia, MO

Sedalia is the county seat of Pettis County in central Missouri, located about 30 miles south of the Missouri River where U.S. Routes 50 and 65 intersect.

Sedalia was founded by General George Rappeen Smith, who filed the first plat on November 30, 1857, under the name 'Sedville'; when the town was re-platted in 1860 it took the name Sedalia, derived from 'Sed,' the nickname of Smith's daughter Sarah.

The railroad reached Sedalia in January 1861, and the town's early prosperity was built on the rails — in 1866 Sedalia was the railhead terminus for the great Texas cattle drives, with hundreds of thousands of cattle trailed north to its stockyards.

By 1900, Sedalia's population of more than 15,000 made it the sixth-largest city in Missouri.

Sedalia had a population of 21,725 at the 2020 census, with about 9,360 households, and only about 57% of its homes are owner-occupied.

Sedalia has hosted the Missouri State Fair since 1899; the roughly 400-acre fairgrounds are among the largest in the United States, and the fair draws nearly 400,000 visitors every August.

Sedalia was the adopted home of ragtime composer Scott Joplin — his famous 'Maple Leaf Rag' was named for a Sedalia saloon — and the city celebrates that legacy with the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival each June.

The 240-mile Katy Trail, built on the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas ('Katy') Railroad right-of-way and one of the longest rails-to-trails projects in the nation, runs through Sedalia.

State Fair Community College, a public two-year college in Sedalia, hosts the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art on its campus.

Smith-Cotton High School, Sedalia's main public high school and home of the Tigers, was established in 1925 and named for Sarah Smith Cotton.