Coroners fear autopsy backlog as GBI loses medical examiner

MACON, Ga. — Some coroners are warning that autopsies could take longer and cost taxpayers more money as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation loses one of its medical examiners.

The GBI announced in a recent letter that its crime lab in Macon will stop performing autopsies for an indefinite period of time starting Oct. 1. That’s because the medical examiner who oversees autopsies is retiring. The GBI said it’s been trying to recruit a replacement since December, but hasn’t found anybody qualified to take the job.

“It is going to be a great burden,” said Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler.

Nearly one-third of Georgia’s 159 counties rely on the Macon crime lab for autopsies, which are used to determine the cause of deaths deemed suspicious or unusual. The GBI said that workload will now shift to the agency’s medical examiners in metro Atlanta and the Savannah area.

Fowler told WALBTV he expects autopsies will take longer to complete, meaning longer waits for grieving families to hold funerals.

Macon-Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said the change will cost counties more money. He said his office already pay fees to funeral homes to pick up and store bodies. Now, Jones said, he will have to pay extra to have bodies transported out of town.

“It’s going to be a financial burden on the taxpayers,” Jones told WGXA-TV.

The GBI’s Aug. 20 letter said it tried to avoid having to suspend autopsies in Macon, but was unable to find a solution.