Fulton County Coroner Jeri Good stands inside the examination room at the Fulton County Forensic Center. It’s located inside the Fulton County Jail complex at 2006 Sweetgum Road, Rochester.

Text and Photos
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — The fairly new Fulton County Forensic Center allows the Fulton County Coroner’s Office to operate in a single location.

Coroner Jeri Good said the above of the center, located inside the Fulton County Jail complex at 2006 Sweetgum Road, Rochester. Good and her staff started using it at the end of 2021.

Previously, elements of the office were scattered around the county, she said.

“We had no (formal) office,” she said. “Whatever coroner was in office would use their own office as their place of business and then they’d use their own vehicle and … we partnered with Woodlawn Hospital to utilize (its) two-person refrigeration system (to store bodies).”

The center includes a conference room where Good and her staff, Margo Layman, Gail Karas, Todd Bailey and Jon Good, can meet together or with families of the deceased.

A main feature of the center is the examination room.

It has an “emergency (cleaning) station” for staff to use if they come into contact with contaminated items, said Good.

The “procedure area,” as Good called it, allows for normal examination of a body on table.

It’s also ready for any autopsies, although Good says none have occurred there thus far as the coroner’s office works with the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center out of Allen County to conduct them.

If that were to change in the future, the room is ready for those more formal procedures.

There are hand-washing stations in the examination room, as well as places to put biohazardous items and store blood and DNA which needs to be checked.

The center has a cooler with table space for five bodies. There’s also a parking bay to store the new coroner’s van for transporting bodies.

Good said federal COVID-19 relief money paid for a large portion of the vehicle, which “went into service in June of 2021.” She’s worked to get grants to pay for other items in the center.

“We’re trying to save as much money as we can,” noted Good of getting grants.

In the bay, there’s a lift to help move bodies in and out of the van.

The center has gotten quite a bit of use, as Good said calls for service have increased by “over 300%” over approximately the last decade.

She attributes that in part to people not seeking out medical care when they should.

Numbers for 2023 currently stand at 60 deaths.

“We’re just grateful for this facility and we’re highly complimented on it,” said Good of the center.

A look inside the cooler at the Fulton County Forensic Center.

Coroner’s office staff started using the new coroner’s van in June 2021.

A look in the back of the coroner’s van.