Richmond County coroner gives perspective on surge in slayings
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We have a closer look at how violent crime impacts different parts of our county government.
We sat down with Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen, who says he’s dealing with a backlog over the last few months.
We’ve reported on several deadly shootings and crimes over the past few months, which has made Bowen’s schedule very busy.
He says it’s hard to show up to the scene and see so many young people falling victim to gun violence, and they’re doing their best to bring closure to families.
For 22 years, Bowen has served as the coroner in Richmond County.
“We investigate death. We start from when we get the call until we sign the death certificate,” he said.
His office pulls medical records, conducts autopsies, and interviews people involved in cases. At the crime scene, he gets a phone call from the sheriff’s office or EMS.
“We take over the body and do our investigation,” said Bowen.
Over the past few months, those investigations involve victims of violent crimes.
“It’s been pretty busy with violent deaths. We’ve had about 31 homicides so far this year,” he said.
It creates a backlog when he’s trying to send the victims to the GBI lab in Atlanta.
“It makes it hard on the families because they have financial stuff they have to do. They have to prepare for the funeral. We wish we could get it done a lot quicker, but sometimes it just takes a little longer to get it done,” he said.
Bowen says things have been improving recently, but information like toxicology reports are still slow-moving.
“It’s hard. They’re wanting answers. They’re wanting closure, and I know it’s hard on them, and that’s why we’re trying to rush them as much as we can,” said Bowen. “It takes a lot longer to get results back than we would like.”
We asked what could help to make things improve, and they said they are doing pretty much everything they can.
He says there are 154 counties in Georgia using the same medical examiner’s office, so the process can be slow.
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