INDIANAPOLIS — We've seen a stunning surge in deaths this year in Marion County.
There are so many people dying and so many death investigations that it's caused the coroner's office to run out of money. The budget was so strained that they had to ask for more funding just to make it through the year.
Back in the spring, after the FedEx shooting, Chief Deputy Coroner Alfarena McGinty said her office knew it was staring down a potential crisis.
"By April, we had already conducted four mass fatality death investigations," McGinty said. "We raised the red flag to the Controller's Office, to the Council that says 'Hey, we're already exceeding numbers compared to the previous year.'"
By October, she said, the coroner's office ran out of money.
Too many people are dying with not enough staff or funding to investigate all the deaths.
"In 2020, it was a historic year, and now 2021 has exceeded that and is now our new historic year of death investigations," McGinty said.
As of Wednesday, Marion County had 2,873 death investigations. That's 300 more than last year.
McGinty said increasing drug overdoses, homicides and COVID-19 are to blame.
Deadly overdoses are the biggest contributor to rising numbers. Marion County had around 700 of them this year.
"And when you compare that to just four years ago, when there were 300, that's a significant number of death investigation cases that we are reviewing and looking at," McGinty said.
She says each death investigation costs between $1,100 and $2,000.
Criminal homicides are often the costliest because they're the most complex. Forensic pathologists have to collect and preserve evidence and, if there are multiple gunshot wounds in particular, there's a lot of evidence from the scene and on the decedent.
"The time that goes into those cases pretty much doubles compared to other types of death investigation cases," McGinty said.
Add in COVID-19 and things get even more costly with extra protection needed for staff.
So, this month, the City-County Council sent relief in the form of about $380,000 to get the coroner's operation through the rest of the year. These funds will pay for more pathologists and another deputy coroner.
Plus, McGinty said in 2022, the office plans work with the DEA on tracking fentanyl to hopefully cut down on overdose deaths.
They also plan to add social workers to help families reduce trauma and violence.
It's all in hopes of reducing tragedy in Marion County, too.
"Our goal is to work with whatever organizations we can to decrease what we're seeing," McGinty said. "We have the information. We have the numbers. Now, let's take a deeper dive to the root cause."