Families in Richmond, Columbia and surrounding counties are having to wait six to eight months to get closure in their loved one’s sudden death and both local coroners say it is long past time to open the Augusta Crime Lab.
All sudden deaths, especially those of relatively young people, must, with few exceptions, undergo an autopsy by Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to eliminate the possibility of foul play. This means that the body of the deceased has to be transported to Atlanta to the Decatur Crime Lab where there is a tremendous backlog.
According to the GBI, the Decatur lab, headquarters of the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office, serves 153 of Georgia’s 159 counties. A secondary lab, located in Pooler, outside of Savannah, is the only other functional forensic crime lab in Georgia.
What appears to be the biggest hold-up are toxicology screens, which would normally have less than a week turn-around, but with the backlog of cases, is taking north of six months to receive the results of a simple drug and alcohol screen.
Columbia County Coroner Terry Norman says that he sympathises with families, some of whom have to wait months for an alcohol screening on a loved one they know for a fact never drank alcohol in life or when alcohol could not have been a contributing factor in the death.
In these cases, the next-of-kin have to wait months for a full death certificate, otherwise, they receive a document that lists the cause of death as “pending.” This causes tremendous delays in settling out the estate as life insurance companies, banks, mortgage holders and other financial institutions require a complete death certificate before they allow access to those types of accounts.
For some families, the wait causes a tremendous financial burden because they must pay out of pocket for funeral expenses due to the insurance policy payout being stalled.
“Believe it or not, we get death certificates on murder victims quicker than those for people who died of a sudden heart attack. If a bullet is what killed the person and that is proven in the autopsy, then they do not need to wait on toxicology to release a death certificate,” Norman said.
Georgia General Assembly Rep. Gary Richardson (R, district 125) says that he has made restarting Augusta’s crime lab a priority since assuming office in March of 2024 and that he has worked to persuade his colleagues in Atlanta to assist him in finding a solution.
“It’s terrible. It’s tragic enough for a family to lose a loved one, but then they are denied a sense of closure by having to wait for so long to receive an official cause of death,” said Richardson.
Richardson says that he has met with Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen and Norman, as well as GBI Director Chris Hosey, and all agree that the situation is untenable for all involved, but the problem is not necessarily due to a lack of direct funding or an insufficiency when it comes to infrastructure.
A new state-of-the-art, $4.1 million lab was constructed in Augusta back in 2003. The lab was designed to service 13 counties, but it has not had a full working staff since 2011.
According to Richardson, the real issue in getting the lab operational is being able to meet the salary demands of qualified medical examiners. The job of medical examiner is no different from that of any other surgeon in terms of the amount of education and post-degree work required.
Currently, the state only pays its medical examiners roughly $150,000 a year, which is a fraction of what one can make in the private sector with the same set of skills.
Mark Bowen says he and Norman have discussed approaching the taxpayers of their respective counties for an ask to help shoulder the burden, but they have, so far, not made any official requests to their commissioners.
“I think that if Richmond and Columbia counties join together and maybe get with some of the other nearby counties, we could combine our funding with state money to get the lab staffed,” Bowen said.
