More Homicides Mean More Work

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Story Published: Jul 1, 2009 at 6:10 PM PST

By Sade Malloy

YAKIMA COUNTY -- There are nearly double the number of homicides in Yakima County compared to the same time last year. For the county coroner, that means longer days and tighter deadlines.

Yakima's growing number of homicides has Yakima County Coroner, Jack Hawkins working a lot harder these days. He's on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week, working 12 hour shifts to cover our county's almost 4,300 square miles. "Everything from illness deaths, suicides, accidental, natural, unattended and homicides," says Hawkins.

We've had 13 homicides this year that's nearly double the 7 we had in 2008 and every new body that comes through his doors means another investigation deadline is looming. "We do our own investigation at the scene and try to have all the information because there's a lot of paperwork and stuff that we have to complete," says Hawkins.

Here's how it all breaks down: Once Hawkins gets the call to meet up with law enforcement, he'll do a brief investigation, remove the body, perform an autopsy and do a body report. Each report is about three pages long. Hawkins is practically a one-man band. There's no chief deputy coroner and the office assistant only works half-days. That means Jack's always doing something. "Some of these people are just at a loss. They don't know who to talk to because some of them have lost a child."

Every death investigation is important to someone whether it's law enforcement or the family.

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