Uncertain Death

Often working silently yet consistently behind the scenes, the county coroner’s office performs a vital task—it discovers how someone died.

Administrator Wayne Enders sits at his desk sporting a green “Portage County Coroner’s Office” shirt. He’s been at the county coroner’s office for more than seven years and has assisted in hundreds of autopsies.

Wayne Enders displays his identification badge. He is also a minister at First Christian Church in Ravenna. {larger}

“Anyone can be trained to eviscerate someone,” Enders says. “But you must be trained in the mind to find a diseased organ.”

Enders teaches photography at Maplewood’s adult education program and takes pride in some of his photography materials. He says he has $800 to $900 lenses that he uses to photograph body parts exceptionally close. He also has special flashes, including ring flashes, which allow him to get within a few inches of the body without taking a bleached photo.

Out of the 850 deaths Portage County typically sees in a year, only about 100 are coroner cases, Enders says.

Autopsies are performed in suspected suicides, homicides or when a person dies unexpectedly but was in good health. An autopsy is particularly important in potential homicides.

“That autopsy will either prove they were involved in it or it will vindicate them,” Enders says, noting that an autopsy can explain if a person was murdered in the first place.

The majority of coroner cases involve males, possibly because they statistically don’t go to the doctor’s office as much as women.

“I actually had my best friend in high school. I happened to look at his toe tag and about freaked out.”

“They go when they’re threatened. They go when they’re really sick,” Enders says.

He clarifies his point with a prostate example.

“Where a guy, man, if he feels like he’s sitting on a basketball, he can’t tell anyone because he’s embarrassed,” Enders says.

Wayne Enders, an administrator at the Portage County Coroner's Office, has seen a lot in his career that some people wouldn't be able to handle, such as small children and people he knew. {larger}

Enders has helped with more than 200 autopsies as an autopsy surgical assistant. He’s now in administration.

Enders says he enjoys his job—enjoys discovering the cause of death.

But some cases can be difficult to deal with, Enders says. “I’ve had to do a couple of babies and discarded fetuses,” he says, his face slowly frowning.

He’s even performed one on a person he knew.

“I actually had my best friend in high school,” he says. “I happened to look at his toe tag and about freaked out.”

He has helped with autopsies on people he knew in the community and kids he didn’t. Some pathologists refuse to tackle some of the more sensitive autopsy subjects and send them elsewhere—they call that a “punt.”

Enders is a minister at the First Christian Church in Ravenna in addition to his job at the coroner’s office.

He takes people apart, but is able to put others back together again with his ministry job.

“I see this job as minister in comforting grieving families helpful,” he says.

The door opens and criminal investigator Tom Decker steps in with a brown paper bag, implying that there was something in the bag other than groceries.

“I could just shoot that person that did this,” Decker said.

The bag contains the belongings of a deceased individual that were supposed to be sent to the funeral home but were accidentally sent to the coroner’s office.

“Don’t do that. You might have a coroner case,” Enders says, chuckling.

“It’s not cool to tell someone a person died over the phone.”

Decker sits down, his gruff voice cutting through the warm air. He just looks like a cop—and he is.

“I don’t go in there and slice and dice like he does,” Decker says, gesturing toward his counterpart in the coroner’s office, Enders. “My job is to find out manner and mode where somebody dies.”

Decker, chief investigator at the Office of the Coroner, looks at evidence at the scene of the incident to try to distinguish the cause of death. He takes photographs and notes.

After gathering the information he needs, Decker arranges to transport the body. Because he doesn’t like to tie up EMS services with moving the body, Decker says he tries to have a private service take care of it.

A set of commonly used dissection tools, including scissors, clamps, scalpels and tweezers. {larger}

The body is first taken to the morgue, where it is looked over to see if an autopsy is necessary. The county coroner has the final say.

As chief investigator, Decker deals with the medical side of the investigation, not the criminal, he stresses.

Sometimes, it’s quite clear to determine a cause of death.

“If you have anyone with blood coming out of their ears, it’s a closed head injury,” Decker says, explaining that his son used to ride bulls and was once thrown off. He had the tell-tale blood coming out of his ears and had to have titanium plates put in his head. His son is fine now, but he sustained some facial fractures in the accident.

Decker looks over the scene of death and then the body is transported and the coroner determines the cause of death. Decker often breaks the news to the family. He says the hardest part is telling parents.

“It’s not cool to tell someone a person died over the phone,” he says.

Instead, he tries to go to the individual’s house with a police escort to break the news. He says the response to the death is pretty unpredictable.

“I’ve had people break dance, hit walls and pass out when I’ve told them,” he says.

Dr. Lisa Kohler has been chief medical examiner for Summit County for six years. {larger}

Dr. Lisa Kohler is the chief medical examiner at the Summit County Medical Examiner office, which is equivalent to a county coroner’s office.

Kohler prides herself in her work. She has done a lot in forensic pathology.

“I’m more in tune with the investigative portion,” she says, comparing herself to the pathologists. “They’re bright people, but most haven’t had forensics training.”

“I’ve had people break dance, hit walls and pass out when I’ve told them.”

Kohler has been the chief medical examiner in Summit County since 1998 and interned there while an undergraduate at the University of Toledo during the tenure of Dr. Marvin Platt.

Kohler says she initially was interested in law enforcement and science.

“I looked at the crime lab initially, but I found out I didn’t like chemistry,” she says.

Dr. Lisa Kohler, chief medical examiner for Summit County, examines evidence. {larger}

The toughest cases to determine cause of death are when young people are involved. They are typically healthy and haven’t had a chance to show long-term health symptoms, she says. Other times, there are two possible causes of death – a heart attack sustained in a car wreck for example—and when it is impossible to determine the initial cause of death, she says.

Back in Portage County, Enders says death is unfortunate in all cases, whether the cause of death is known or not.

Stating a simple, yet heart-felt mantra, he says, “We live in an imperfect world.”

Mike Klesta (mklesta@kent.edu)

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