Garland County reported deaths increase in 2019

HOT SPRINGS — The number of reported homicides doubled and deaths by suicide rose 40% in Garland County last year compared with 2018, according to the 2019 coroner’s report presented to the Garland County Quorum Court earlier this month.

Fourteen homicides were reported, up from seven in 2018. The Hot Springs Police Department investigated 12 deaths last year as homicides, including eight that occurred during a 12-week period from early May to late July. Slightly more than nine homicides were reported on average from 2015 to 2018, according to county death statistics.

The number of deaths by suicide rose from 27 in 2018 to 38 last year, the most since 41 were reported in 2015.

Reported deaths increased for the third-straight year, rising from 1,519 in 2018 to 1,608 last year. There hasn’t been a year-over-year decline since reported deaths fell from 1,490 in 2015 to 1,416 in 2016.

State law requires deaths attended by certain circumstances to be reported to authorities, including those that appear to be caused by violence, suicide or accident or that appear to be other than natural.

Deaths linked to drugs or poisons in the body, those caused by motor vehicle accidents, fires, explosions, drowning or while in the custody of a state mental institution or hospital must also be reported.

The coroner’s office has said the majority of reportable deaths occur in hospice care, as a pre-diagnosed terminal condition is one of the close to 20 circumstances that trigger the reporting requirement.

Natural causes were attributed to 1,474 of the 1,608 deaths reported in Garland County last year. Seventy-one were deemed accidental and two undetermined. The coroner’s office has said the latter classification includes deaths caused by drug overdoses, which are difficult for the state medical examiner to determine if they are intentional or accidental.

The coroner’s office conducted 357 death scene investigations last year, up from 325 in 2018. The law requires coroners to sign a death certificate within 48 hours of opening an investigation. The cause of death is listed as pending if a determination can’t be made within 48 hours. The coroner’s 2019 report listed nine deaths as pending.

Forty deaths were referred to the state medical examiner, compared with 30 in 2018. Seventy-five of the deceased were held in the county morgue.

Cases sent to the morgue are typically those awaiting an autopsy at the Arkansas Crime Laboratory in Little Rock or those where the next of kin have yet to be notified.

The $202,014 budget the Quorum Court adopted for the coroner’s office included a full-time salary and benefits for elected Coroner Stuart Smedley and a deputy coroner. Money was also appropriated for two part-time assistant coroners. The coroner’s budget is paid from the county general fund.