Overdose victims’ families seek answers

Medical examiner’s office backlog means a long wait

Palm Beach County’s rising number of drug overdoses has left the morgue often unable to quickly give families the answers they’re seeking about their loved ones’ deaths.

The county saw more than 600 fatal overdoses last year, resulting in an overwhelming number of drug tests that have left laboratories backlogged, said Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Reinhard Motte. That means autopsy reports can’t be quickly completed.

“The mostly finished autopsy report sits on my desk until I get that last [toxicology report],” Motte said. “At that point, you know which way the case is going, but we need those final details.”

That leaves families like Samantha Miller’s agonizing.

Miller, of Boynton Beach, disappeared in November, drawing an outpouring of searchers from the community and coverage across the news media. When her body was found in a car, her family feared she had accidentally overdosed.

After waiting nearly four months, Miller’s mother, Dierdre Miller, recently received the results of her daughter’s autopsy report. The medical examiner’s finding: Samantha Miller intentionally overdosed using multiple drugs, including an extreme dose of Prozac.

Miller, who would have turned 28 this month, was prescribed Prozac to treat her depression, her mother said.

The backlog at the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office affects dozens of families who need answers about overdose victims’ deaths for various reasons, Motte said. Some are grieving and need the final details to find closure.

Others have more complicated cases, such as trying to support their families while awaiting the death certificate from the medical examiner’s office that unfreezes an estate, he said. The records department receives 50 calls every day from families seeking answers, he said. The families are told the case is “still pending toxicology.”

“Sometimes they are in tears, and sometimes I get an earful,” he said of the families’ responses. “Both responses are understandable.”

Some 253 cases from 2016 until March 16 still need to be finalized, he said. He typically receives 10 new cases each day, which combine with those left from the previous day, he

COURTESY OF MILLER FAMILY The medical examiner found Samantha Miller intentionally overdosed using multiple drugs, including an extreme dose of Prozac.