The Garfield County Coroner’s office wants more money for autopsies and for the forensic pathologists who do them.
As of last Tuesday, the Coroner’s office had investigated 128 deaths this year and performed 68 autopsies, which is a slight, but unexpected, increase from last year.
The coroner is hoping the county commissioners will kick in an additional $35,000 to get them to the end of the year.
The Coroner’s office investigates deaths that don’t happen in a hospital, or in hospice care.
“You know, all of your car accidents, all of your non-natural deaths. Anything that’s suicide, accident, homicide or undetermined would automatically be a Coroner’s Office investigation,” said Garfield County Coroner, Robert Glassmire.
Glassmire isn’t surprised his caseload this year is larger, seeing that the county’s population is growing.
“It only makes sense that our rates of birth and our rates of death are going to increase slightly, too,” he said.
In future budgets, he said he plans to account for this increase.
