MACON, Ga. — A shortage of medical examiners at the GBI crime lab is keeping Macon families from getting closure after losing a loved one. The shortage is causing a body back up at the morgue.
The GBI says they should have 18 medical examiners, but they only have half that currently. Bibb County coroner Leon Jones says, "we need medical examiners. We need forensic medical examiners, and they say they can't find any," Jones said.
Medical Examiners determine how a person died and if the death was sudden unexpected, or violent.
In short-- medical examiners provide a lot of answers to the question of a person's death.
"The families are asking do we know when and we have to say we don't know when," Jones said.
Bibb County coroner Leon Jones says the families of four people who recently died are going without those answers. That's because they're waiting to be autopsied.
"The gentleman that was found dead Saturday. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that's $100 a day," Jones said.
Currently-- the Macon morgue is holding the bodies of the two men who apparently died from the freezing temps last weekend. And the two men who died from an overdose at a North Macon Motel on Tuesday.
"Two people were found deceased at the motel. You've got to have an autopsy done. Two people found dead outside a house or outside a tool shed or a parking deck, that's just protocol," Jones said.
During the wait, the four families are still looking for some closure.
"There will not be any funerals of their loved ones this week, and I hate to say it I don't think there will be any funerals for their loved ones next week. Because we don't know when the autopsy is going to be done, and we don't know where the autopsy is going to be done," Jones said.
Jones says he hopes there will be more medical examiners by next year, so there will be no more body backups at the morgue. Jones says the GBI works on cases all over the state. They have three labs for the medical examiner's team located in Macon, Pooler and DeKalb.