2023 Coroner's Annual Report

About Our Office

Introduction

The Benton County Coroner's Office (BCCO) is tasked with investigating certain deaths occurring in Benton County, Washington. The criteria defining which deaths must be investigated by the BCCO are determined by the state; they include deaths occurring by unnatural or unlawful means, deaths occurring by suspicious circumstances, violent or traumatic deaths, and sudden or unexpected deaths in previously healthy persons. 

Medicolegal death investigation in Benton County utilizes the medical diagnostic process, in which information about the circumstances of death and the decedent’s medical, surgical, psychosocial, and occupational history are combined with observations from the death scene, postmortem physical examination of the body, and laboratory testing to form conclusions about what injuries and/or diseases caused the death. While we work closely and collaboratively with law enforcement and crime scene investigators, we conduct our investigation and form our conclusions independently of other agencies. The work done by our staff is physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging, and we are grateful to these caring, committed people who serve our community day in and day out. 

In addition to providing answers to the families and loved ones of decedents, medicolegal death investigations have broad importance for community health and safety. Death investigations provide evidence to convict the guilty and protect the innocent, generate data to inform public health research and intervention strategies, and document occupational, transportation, and product safety risks. The BCCO is also dedicated to establishing and/or confirming identification of deceased persons, ensuring families are aware of a loved one’s demise, and managing unclaimed remains.

Benton County has a land area of approximately 1760 square miles and is located in the south-central portion of Washington.  Benton County has the third largest populace in eastern Washington, and the tenth largest populace in the State.

Our office is accredited by the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME), receiving its first accreditation in 2023 after a yearlong review process and an on- site audit by IACME evaluators. The IACME is an international organization dedicated to ensuring coroners, medical examiners, forensic pathologists, medicolegal death investigators, and consultants perform their duties to the highest level of professionalism possible. Accreditation is a rigorous process, requiring a lengthy and in-depth initial inspection by an independent team of trained auditors, with follow-up on-site inspections every 5 years. The Benton County Coroner's Office is one of less than ten IACME accredited offices in the State.

All of the contracted forensic pathologists used by this office have completed medical training and are either MD's or DO’s and have sub-specialty medical training in forensic pathology. Additionally, all forensic pathologists used by this office are board certified in forensic pathology.

Currently, this office employs two medicolegal death investigators who are certified by the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI), and one medicolegal death investigator who is certified by Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

The Benton County Coroner's Office opened its current facility July 29, 2004. The facility houses an autopsy suite, a classroom, office space and storage.

Staffing

In 2023, the BCCO was staffed by five paid employees and three unpaid interns.

• The five paid positions, three full-time and two part-time, are responsible for varying degrees of decision making. The three full-time positions are responsible for providing daytime and rotating weekend coverage for responding to death reports.
• The elected Coroner is the chief administrator and makes decisions pertaining to the overall operations of the office, final decisions about case jurisdiction, deciding the scope and course of a death investigation, and other similar duties, as well as conducting medicolegal death investigations. Additionally, the coroner will review medical records and reports, test results, certify deaths, review autopsy reports, and provide court testimony.
• The Chief Deputy is responsible for acting as the coroner in his absence and is also involved in decision making pertaining to office operations, staffing, gathering information about the circumstances of death, obtain medical records and other documents to aid in the medical aspect of death investigation, and evaluate death scenes, and responds to death scene and conducts medicolegal death investigations, and provide court testimony.
• The Lead Deputy has similar duties to the Chief Deputy and is the direct report for the part-time Deputy Coroners, provide them with direct feedback on their death investigations, reports and other similar activities, and provide court testimony.
• The part-time Deputy Coroners are responsible for providing night and weekend response to death scenes and conducting medicolegal death investigations, and all tasks required to complete the investigation, and provide court testimony.

About Our Work

Overview

Not all deaths occurring in Benton County need to be reported to or investigated by the Coroner's Office; a large portion of deaths are natural and are certified by the deceased person’s health care provider. The Benton County Coroner's Office is responsible for the investigation of all sudden, unexpected, violent, suspicious, or unnatural deaths occurring in Benton County, and the certification of cause and manner of death for cases determined to fall under the jurisdiction of the Coroner. Investigation of each reported death begins with detailed information gathering about the known circumstances, the decedent’s social and medical history, and if required, by conducting a death scene investigation, an autopsy examination, toxicology testing, and other laboratory studies. Once the investigation is complete, the findings are used to develop an opinion as to what conditions caused and/or contributed to the death. If the death is determined to be entirely natural and the decedent is under the care of a hospice provider, under the direct care of a medical provider, or in a medical facility over 36 hours, the death will be certified by the health care provider. If the investigation suggests that the death may be due to injury, drugs, or foul play, the case falls under Coroner's jurisdiction, and the Coroner will use the investigation and examination findings to certify the cause and manner of death on the Death Certificate.

Deaths That Must Be Reported to the Coroner

• Persons who die suddenly when in apparent good health and without medical attendance within 36 hours preceding death.
• Circumstances that indicate death was caused in part or entirely by unnatural or unlawful means.
• Suspicious circumstances.
• Unknown or obscure causes.
• Deaths which were caused by any injury whatsoever, whether the primary cause or contributing cause.
• Rapidly fatal contagious disease, with public health risk.
• Deaths occurring in jail or prison.
• Unclaimed bodies.
• Premature and stillborn infants where suspicious circumstances exist.
• All deaths in children.

Cause and Manner of Death

The cause of death describes the physical finding in the body that led to death. This may be a natural disease that causes a heart attack or stroke; an injury of some kind, such as a gunshot wound or stab wound; or the toxic effects of a substance, such as a fentanyl overdose. The manner of death is a way to categorize deaths for public health reason; the categories are natural, accident, suicide, homicide, and undetermined. Deaths due entirely to natural disease, with no contribution from external factors such as injury or drugs, are classified as natural. If one or more external factors did contribute, the death is considered non-natural and may be categorized as accident, suicide, homicide, or undetermined. Non- natural deaths resulting from the inadvertent outcome of an action are classified as accidents. Non-natural deaths resulting from self-inflicted injury are classified as suicide. Non-natural deaths resulting from injuries inflicted by another person are classified as homicide. If there is not enough information about the circumstances of death, or compelling arguments can be made for two or more manners, the death may be classified as undetermined. The manner of death is determined after considering all information available at the time of death certification; if relevant information subsequently becomes available, the manner of death may be amended. Manner of death classification was added to the death certificate to assist public health statisticians in compiling and analyzing data and is a medical opinion independent from any legal determination.

Process

An initial investigation is done on every death reported to the BCCO, to determine whether the death falls under BCCO jurisdiction. An investigator will gather pertinent history and medical records for review. In certain cases, a BCCO investigator will attend the death scene in person to gather additional information and perform a preliminary examination of the body. Cases in which a scene response will occur include suspected homicides and suicides, suspicious deaths, presumed accidental deaths, and cases in which the person is suspected to have died of natural disease, but was not under the care of a clinician, and/or drug use or previous injury may have played a role in the death. In 2023, investigators attended 364 death scenes within the boundaries of Benton County. There were an additional 310 deaths which occurred in a medical facility where this office reviewed medical records, and there were an additional 906 hospice deaths this office reviewed.

Not all cases falling under Coroner's jurisdiction are autopsied. Some deaths can be certified after a review of medical records and an external examination; those decedents can be released to the funeral home without being brought to the coroner's facility. Deaths which occur within Benton County, and fall under BCCO's jurisdiction, and require a more detailed external examination or an autopsy, are transported to BCCO facility by BCCO staff for these purposes. During 2023, the BCCO did not have a forensic pathologist on staff, so contract forensic pathologists were used; however, this required transporting bodies needing autopsies to various counties in Washington where a forensic pathologist was available.

About our Cases

Deaths Reported

In 2023, there were an estimated 2000 deaths recorded in Benton County. Based on the latest United States Census Bureau data, the estimated population of Benton County is 215,000. Of these deaths, 1600 or 80% of the deaths, were reported to the Coroner for investigation. Based upon circumstances of death, the decedent’s medical history, and analysis of the scene, the Coroner assumed jurisdiction in 694 (43.4%) of these reported deaths, or 34.7% of all deaths in the county.

Manner of Death Overview

Unidentified Bodies

Determining the identity of the decedent is one of the first steps in a medicolegal death investigation. BCCO uses a variety of techniques to scientifically identify decedents who are unknown, or for whom identification is tentative. When there is a possible or presumed identity, or the unknown decedent was fingerprinted or had their DNA entered into a government database during life, traditional identification methods can be used.

In 2023, there were no recently unidentified bodies in Benton County.

Autopsies

Autopsies are typically conducted when it is believed the death was due to the violent act of another; where the deceased is believed to be in good health and there is no medical history to reference or to assist in the determination of the cause and manner of death; when the death is believed to have been caused by fire or other unexplained accident; when the deceased is a child, unless there is a substantial amount of previous medical history to explain why the death occurred; when the circumstances of the death are suspicious or otherwise unexplainable.

In 2023 there were 36 full autopsies and no partial autopsies conducted by the Benton County Coroner’s Office, a decrease of 4 autopsies from the previous year. The decrease is primarily due to a lack of forensic pathologists in Washington to handle a statewide case load. In 2023 we transported 23 bodies to Snohomish County, 11 to Thurston County and 2 to Grant County.

Morgue Use

There are several situations when a deceased may be transported to the Benton County Morgue; for full autopsy, detailed external examination, awaiting a next-of-kin notification, identification purposes, etc.

In 2023 it is estimated there were over 250 bodies transported to the Benton County Morgue by the coroner’s office staff. Of these, 36 were for the purpose of processing autopsy, 175 for a detailed examination; 40 were to await notification of next-of-kin or funeral home designation; the remaining were awaiting further investigation to determine the need for an autopsy.

Toxicology Testing

There are several circumstances when toxicology testing will be conducted on a deceased person. When a death occurs from a motor vehicle accident, when the death is a suspected drug or alcohol overdose, when death is from a suicide by any means, or other deaths as needed.

In 2023 the Benton County Coroner’s office submitted 182 samples for toxicology testing, with 167 of the samples being submitted to the National Medical Services Lab by this office or by the WSP Lab after we submitted the sample to the WSP Lab. The WSP Lab tested the remainder in their toxicology lab.

Organ and Tissue Donation Referrals

Organ and tissue donations are very important to the citizens of Benton County, Washington state, and nationwide. While the primary donation referrals this office is involved in is for cornea, bone, and tissue donations, we are often contacted by hospitals and organ donation organizations to verify and approve the process of organ donations from persons who are currently hospitalized due to injuries or illnesses but are still considered possible donors.

In 2023, the Benton County Coroner’s Office was responsible for 385 direct referrals to organ donation organizations, with 80 resulting in an actual donation.  In 2021 there were 335 direct referrals to organ donation organizations, with 55 resulting in actual donations.

Unclaimed Bodies/Cremated Remains

The Benton County Coroner’s Office has the cremated remains of 57 persons stored at the coroner’s office; these cremated remains date back several years. In 2023, the coroner’s office was presented with the cremated remains of 10 additional persons as unclaimed. Of the remaining cremated remains, the coroner’s office continues to maintain a current list of the names on the Coroner web page and is also working with Washington Veterans Cemetery to determine the veteran status of the remaining cremated remains; in 2023 there were three identified as veterans. The coroner’s office continues to work with local funeral homes and cemeteries, the Washington Veterans Cemetery, and to seek out families of the remaining cremated remains so they can be placed in a proper, dignified final resting place.

Exhumations

In 2023 this office was contacted by a person researching historical cemeteries and told of an unidentified female at a local cemetery. We researched the unidentified female and were unable to locate any historical records other than a death certificate on a website, noting she was buried in 1986 after being found in the Columbia River. A partial grant was acquired with the assistance of the Spokane County MEO; with those funds and funds from this office, an exhumation was done and DNA processing completed. A solid DNA profile was developed with leads to possible family members researched; the search for family continues.

Community Involvement

Education

BCCO staff continued to provide a variety of educational programs to local youth groups, high schools, and other groups.

BCCO has an active intern program which allows a limited number of college level students an opportunity to acquire some hands-on experience in the field of forensic death investigations.