The Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office is seeing a record number of cases during the first half of 2020, with fatal drug overdoses more than doubling, homicides quadrupling and increases in accidents and overall cases compared to same period last year.
From Jan. 1 to June 30, the coroner’s office handled 96 investigative cases, including 26 accidents, 20 fatal drug overdoses and four homicides.
By comparison, there were 66 investigative cases, including 17 accidents, nine fatal drug overdoses and one homicide, during the same six-month stretch last year.
An investigative case is any case that requires investigators to go out to the scene of a death or the hospital to look into the cause of death and may require a certain level of forensic services, potentially including a pathologist or toxicologist, said Bartholomew County Deputy Coroner Jay Frederick.
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“Just the overall volume has put a strain on the office,” Frederick said. “…It’s not one single thing that’s driving the numbers up. It’s like an overall increase.”
Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting said the biggest percentage increase by manner of death has been homicides, which reached four during the first half of this year — the same as the previous three years combined.
The most common drugs found in toxicology reports for overdose deaths include methamphetamine and fentanyl, both of which have been present in nine cases during the first half of the year.
Other drugs commonly contributing to the deaths include benzodiazepines, other prescription drugs and alcohol, the coroner’s office said.
None of the 96 deaths certified by the coroner’s office were due to COVID-19, Nolting said in a statement.
“Some of those cases have been reported to the coroner’s office, but none have meet the criteria to be investigated by our office,” Nolting said. “This is mostly because those patients were under the care of a physician at the time of death, and the cause of death is known. In those cases, the physician has certified the death.”
Although overall cases have increased, suicides have stayed relatively steady so far compared to last year, and child deaths are down, Frederick said.
Last year, the coroner’s office investigated five child deaths — all infants under the age of 1 year — but none so far this year, Frederick said.
“This year, we’ve totally had the rug pulled out from under us,” Frederick said.
