The County Coroner is an elected official with many responsibilities with the foremost being the oversight of an investigation and certification of a variety of deaths within the Coroner’s jurisdiction for legal or public health interest.
For years, Clinton County did not have an official morgue of its own until November 2021 when county officials gave the go-ahead for it to be built.
“Ours is average size for a county our size,” said Clinton County Coroner Ed Cripe. “Cass County does have a little smaller morgue. Tippecanoe County’s is a lot larger with a lot more cold storage space. Some counties don’t even have a morgue.”
Located in the emergency management section of the Clinton County Fairgrounds, the morgue is a two-room facility that sits adjacent to Cripe’s office at 1857 South Jackson Street.
“Since our morgue has been open, we’ve had 70 cases, not all autopsied,” said Cripe. Probably about 15 to 20 that’s been autopsied. So, all together, we’ve saved about $21,000. It has been very beneficial.”
The Coroner is required by law, to determine the cause, circumstances and manner of death for cases found to be under the Coroner’s legal jurisdiction. Besides investigating deaths, the Coroner serves all Clinton County police agencies and deaths caused by diseases that may be public health threats.
The vast majority of coroner investigations are natural deaths, which include situations where there is no attending physician to sign the death certificate, sudden or unexpected deaths, or cases involving alcohol or other drugs of abuse.
“We had 27 deaths last year from overdoses,” said Cripe. “A lot of methamphetamines, a lot of fentanyl and stuff like that.”
One of the key things for a morgue to have is a vault which can help preserve bodies for a long period of time.
“The shelving, how it is set up right now, is for three,” said Cripe. “However, I can adjust that and I can get five.”
Cripe added the most bodies he’s had in the morgue at one time is four.