Richland County Coroner’s Office seeks to add part-time investigator as part of 2027 budget

MANSFIELD — The Richland County Coroner’s Office wants to add a part-time investigator as part of its 2027 budget request.

Officials from the coroner’s office presented their budget proposal Tuesday to the Richland County Board of Commissioners.

The team included Coroner Dr. Dan Burwell, Deputy Coroner Dr. Mike Patterson, chief investigator Bob Ball and office manager Brandi Risner.

A central focus of the presentation was the request to create a part-time investigator position to support the county’s two full-time investigators, Ball and Tom Stortz.

“My guys run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We need to give them a break,” Risner told commissioners, noting Ball and Stortz are both nearing retirement age.

Working with county risk management, the coroner’s office set the starting pay rate for the part-time investigator at $26.67 per hour based on a wage survey conducted two years ago.

The office plans to finalize the position’s scope and post the opening shortly after the first of the year.

Officials noted the role demands a rare stomach and skill set, mentioning that prospective applicants will likely shadow active investigators before being hired to ensure they can manage the intense nature of death scenes.

“It is a special job. Not just anyone can do it and it’s definitely not like television. You smell a lot, you see a lot… Kids are not easy. Suicides are not easy. Dealing with families is not easy. So it’s not a job for everyone,” Risner said.

Ball recalled a former intern’s first day on the job.

“Tom and I had an intern that came in that was just all on fire to be a forensic investigator. First time I took her out, we got out of the vehicle to go (into a house) — well, it was (a body) that had been laying about seven or eight days in the heat. And she said, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘That’s what we’re getting ready to go into.’

“That was her last day,” Ball said.

Risner said it’s also nearly impossible to predict the office caseload.

“The coroner’s office is one of those departments where you never know what’s going to happen. We could be less than 10 [autopsies], we could be more than 10,” Risner said.

“You just never know what kind of day, month, year what we’re going to have… With our job, there’s no such thing as predicting.”

Coroner officials also detailed rising operational expenses tied to outside contracted services, most notably forensic autopsies handled through the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

Montgomery County’s autopsy fee is increasing to $1,850 per procedure in 2027, up from $1,650.

Despite the higher rate, coroner officials commended Montgomery County for its state-of-the-art toxicology equipment and thorough, timely reporting.

Combined with body transport costs — which are expected to rise slightly by about $25 per trip due to fuel expenses, reaching up to $550 on the high end — the office is budgeting based on an average of roughly 10 or fewer autopsies per month.

The presentation also highlighted the county’s newly formed Traumatic Loss Team, a volunteer-driven response initiative created to provide immediate crisis intervention, counseling connections and ongoing support to families coping with sudden tragedies, particularly suicides.

The multidisciplinary team, which was launched this year, includes representatives from Catalyst Life Services, local trauma nurses, NAMI and community members.

Operating on a modest budget allocation of roughly $4,000 for resource brochures, comfort cards and outreach materials, the team has already been dispatched to two local suicide calls.

Ball and Risner underscored the role of following up with grieving households to curb trauma and prevent secondary crises.

According to figures shared during the meeting, Richland County has recorded 18 suicides to date in 2026. That follows 19 suicides recorded in 2025 and 20 in 2024, reflecting a steady, tragic trend the loss team hopes to counteract through direct intervention.

“We’ve implemented the program. We’ve had two cases now where the traumatic loss team has gone out, has contacted the family and is working with the family. Both of them were suicides and they are actively pursuing — when I say pursuing, they’re actively monitoring their case. We’ve got one that has gone into counseling,” Ball said.

“The one family kind of has backed off, they’re not really receptive. There’s a lot of drama going on inside the family, so that’d be it, but we still reach out to them. We have somebody that sends them cards and say, ‘Thinking about you, if you need something.’

“It’s just making that (connection). It’s up and running,” Ball said.

Experiencing a suicide in the immediate family increases a survivor’s risk of dying by suicide by roughly 2 to 3.5 times, compared to the general population or individuals bereaved by non-suicide deaths, according to a story published in Psychiatric Times in 2003.

“If we can save one or two, I think we’ve done our job,” Ball said.

The meeting with commissioners on Tuesday was one of an ongoing series of sessions with elected officials and department heads as the three-member board works to finalize a 2027 countywide spending plan by the end of the year.