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.

Accreditation and Certifications

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 handful of IACME accredited offices in the State.



All staff, and 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 five medicolegal death investigator who are certified by Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, one of which is also is nationally certified by the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI). Two interns are also certified by Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission as medicolegal death investigators.



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. With the support of the Board of County Commissioners, County Administrators and their support staff, the coroner’s office has been able to provide excellent service to the community. Additionally, we brought on a full-time staff forensic pathologist and a full-time autopsy technician to support our mission. With the addition of the forensic pathologist, Benton County is now able to conduct autopsies sooner and with consistency. We have also entered into interlocal agreements with 6 surrounding counties to provide autopsy services for them, thus creating a revenue source for Benton County. With the growing Benton County population and with the regional growth we anticipate an increasing case load and are planning for the future.

Staffing

 

In 2025, the BCCO was staffed by seven paid employees and six unpaid interns.

 

• The seven paid positions, five full-time and two part-time, are responsible for varying degrees of decision making. The five full-time positions are responsible for providing daytime and rotating weekend coverage for responding to death reports, and for conducting autopsies.
• 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.
• The Board-Certified Forensic Pathologist is responsible for conducting autopsies, documenting the findings in written form, reviewing medical records and toxicology reports and performing other examinations and analysis as needed.
• The Autopsy Technician assists the forensic pathologist in conducting the autopsy, is the primary autopsy photographer, processes all tissue and fluids retained during the autopsy and other duties as assigned.

 

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 typically 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
• Unknown or obscure
• Deaths which were caused by any injury whatsoever, whether the primary cause or contributing cause.
• Rapidly fatal contagious disease, with public health
• Deaths occurring in jail or
• Unclaimed
• Premature and stillborn infants where suspicious circumstances exist.
• All deaths in

Cause and Manner of Death

 

The cause of death describes the physical findings with 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 typically 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 2025, there were 704 deaths reports to the coroner, of those investigators attended 421 death scenes within the boundaries of Benton County. There were an additional 283 deaths which occurred in a medical facility where this office reviewed medical records, and there were an additional 795 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 2025, the BCCO did not have a forensic pathologist on staff for a portion of the year, so contract forensic pathologists were used who traveled to our facility. In April 2025 we were able to hire a full-time forensic pathologist and a full-time autopsy technician to conduct our autopsies. BCCO also contracted with several surrounding counties to perform their autopsies.

 

About our Cases

Deaths Reported

 

In 2025, there were an estimated 2096 deaths recorded in Benton County. Based on the latest United States Census Bureau data, the estimated population of Benton County is 218,200; the tenth most populace County in Washington. Of these deaths, approximately 1500 or 72% 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 704 (47%) of these reported deaths, or 33.6% of all deaths in the county.

 

In 2025 homicide deaths decreased by 6, drug overdose deaths increased by 22, and deaths by suicide increased by 6.

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 2025, there were no recently unidentified bodies in Benton County; however, there are 5 unidentified persons who have been interred in local cemeteries for 40 or more years. The BCCO will continue to work on identifying these persons.

 

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 2025 there were 84 full autopsies and no partial autopsies conducted by the Benton County Coroner’s Office, a decrease of 24 autopsies from the previous year. The decrease is primarily due to fewer homicides, and the ability to review cases more thoroughly with the staff forensic pathologist. The first few months of the year we still contracted with Forensic Pathologist Services (FPS) who supplies forensic pathologists to Washington and other states to help with the national shortage of forensic pathologists, but in April we brought on the staff forensic pathologist and no longer used FPS.

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 2025 it is estimated there were over 400 bodies transported to the Benton County Morgue by the coroner’s office staff. Of these, 84 were for the purpose of autopsy, 215 for a detailed examination; 75 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 2025 the Benton County Coroner’s office submitted 170 samples for toxicology testing, with 116 of the samples being submitted to the National Medical Services Lab and 54 submitted to the Washington State Patrol toxicology (WSP) lab by this office. Of the 54 submitted to the WSP Lab, the WSP submitted 53 of those samples to the NMS Lab for testing. The WSP Lab tested the remaining sample 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 2025, the Benton County Coroner’s Office was responsible for 319 direct referrals to organ donation organizations through an interface with MDILog, with 107 resulting in an actual donation of corneas, tissue and/or bone.  In 2024 there were 302 direct referrals to organ donation organizations, with 76 resulting in actual donations.

 

Unclaimed Bodies/Cremated Remains

The Benton County Coroner’s Office has the cremated remains of over 70 persons stored at the coroner’s office; this number fluctuates due to locating family to release the cremated remains to during the year. These cremated remains date back several years. In 2025, the coroner’s office was presented with the cremated remains of several 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 2025 there were additional persons identified as veterans or otherwise eligible to be placed in the Veterans Cemetery. 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

 There was one exhumation done in 2025; an infant who was located in the Richland Landfill in 1989 but was never identified. Unfortunately, a solid DNA profile was unable to be developed to help with identification, so the infant will be reinterred in 2026.

 

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 interested persons an opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in the field of forensic death investigations.