Richland County Coroner Dan Burwell told the Board of Commissioners on Oct. 28 that his office is proposing an increase in next year's autopsy budget to prepare for unpredictable caseloads, and requested funding to train a part-time investigator.

"We never know what kind of caseload we're gonna have, so we always prepare for more autopsies per month rather than less," Burwell said during the budget hearing. He and chief investigator Bob Ball said the office is currently running about $11,000 to $12,000 per month on autopsy costs.

The coroner's office provided per-case cost figures for commissioners: an autopsy runs about $1,650 and transport roughly $450, for a typical total of about $2,100 per case, the office said. The 2023 autopsy-related spending included a notable spike (about $340,000 for the year), which staff and commissioners discussed as background for the request.

The office also asked for a modest recurring line to support a survivor-loss or "facilitated response" team led by the coroner's investigators. Bob Ball, the coroner's chief investigator, told the commission the team would contact grieving family members immediately after traumatic deaths (suicides, overdoses and similar cases) to connect them to counseling and other local resources such as Catalyst Life Services. Ball said volunteers would respond but the office is budgeting roughly $4,000 to cover travel and related expenses for those volunteers while the program is stood up.

Burwell and staff described a separate personnel request: funding to train a part-time investigator to back up two long-serving full-time investigators, both of whom have signaled eventual retirement. "It takes a year and a half to train somebody to do what we do," Ball said, arguing that a trained part-time investigator would preserve institutional knowledge and provide relief for on-call coverage.

Commissioners pressed the coroner's office on legal and liability questions about volunteer responders for the survivor-loss team, asking whether the prosecutor's office had reviewed the proposal. Burwell and Ball acknowledged those concerns and said they would seek legal and insurance vetting before the program begins.

No formal vote on the coroner budget occurred at the meeting; commissioners asked staff to include the request in budget deliberations and to provide follow-up information on training costs, the proposed part-time investigator's scope and any legal or insurance constraints.

Ending: The coroner's office emphasized the request is intended to prepare for unpredictable caseloads rather than to assume more autopsies will occur; commissioners asked for additional detail and legal review before any final budget action.