A quiet dignity pervades the Thurston County Coroner’s Office.
“It’s quiet — it’s like sacred ground,” began Gary Warnock, the county’s elected coroner.
“When I open the door (to the controlled temperature environmental unit), there is a body wrapped in a plastic sheet. That person belongs to somebody — that’s someone’s mom, dad, brother or sister; they belong to somebody, and we respect this.”
Beginning as a deputy coroner investigator, Warnock has served in the coroner’s office since 2001. Elected as coroner in 2006, he is now in his 19th year of service.
His staff is comprised of five full-time deputy coroner investigators, one full-time chief duty, one full-time administrative assistant, one full-time autopsy technician, one part-time deputy coroner investigator, one part-time autopsy technician and two volunteers.
“It’s a very lean department given the numbers of cases we handled,” Warnock explained.
Part of the challenge is that staffing has not kept up with the county’s population. In 2010, the county’s population was 253,000; in 2024, that number had risen to 299,000 — an 18.3 percent increase.
“When you have more people living here, there will be more death as well,” Warnock pointed out. “Our staffing has not grown to keep up with the increase in population.”
In 2024, there were 2,880 reported deaths in Thurston County, of which 364 had autopsies. This is a 13% increase in total deaths and 117% in autopsies since 2018.
“Every death is approached exactly the same way,” Warnock explained.
“When we get to the scene, we discuss the scene environment with first responders, interview people who the deceased person was known to and take note of the family background if known and notate any medical history that would be relevant to the investigation.
The office’s primary duty is to determine the cause and manner of death. The cause of death is the disease process or injury that resulted in death. The manner of death is a classification in which a determination is made about whether the death resulted from natural causes, homicide, suicide, accident and, on occasion, undetermined factors.
“Our work can be both gratifying and emotionally raw. Behind the scenes, families know what we did for them,” Warnock continued.
“After working many days and long hours on investigations, and with multiple phone calls to and from families, they can see the efforts put forth by this team. When a family takes the time to sit down and express the compassion and care they received from us, that means the world to us. It’s confirmation we are doing good work.”
As to the hard part of the job, it begins with the initial contact with the deceased’s next-of-kin.
“It can be a cold knock at the door in the middle of the night, or any other time to inform a family member of a death. During this process, we provide details of what occurred and what the next steps will be,” he added quietly.
Warnock also allowed family members the opportunity to view their deceased loved one, something he and his family could not do when his eldest son was killed in Iraq in 2006.
“Now I know what it feels like when you’re denied the opportunity to see your loved one,” Warnock added.
“This is the raw, unadulterated emotions families experience ... these families may not be physically standing in front me, but I know where they are at, here and here,” said Warnock as he patted his heart and head.
“For me, who am I to tell family members they can’t see their son or daughter? Doing this does provide them with a bit of closure during their grieving process,” he added.
But with the rising number deaths in the county and not enough staff, Warnock has had to revert to the original policy of not allowing families to view their loved ones.
“This was a very difficult decision for me,” he said.
“We are sympathetic towards everyone’s loss,” concluded Warnock.
“Survivors sometimes go to a dark place when this happens, and we work hard to walk them through the tragedy.”
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anothername
Gary is one of the best.
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