There are six bodies taken from San Juan County to the state's morgue that still have no explanation provided as to their recent cause of death.

This, despite weeks of waiting and a major effort by local authorities to assure the public there is no need to worry about the sudden rash of unexplained deaths and bodies found in public.

Some of them have the common link of being found in water.

At least one death is believed to be a homicide, but officials assure us they believe the other five to be of other causes and unrelated, perhaps attributed to drug use, alcohol or cold weather exposure.

Weeks later, that assurance should be backed by facts.

Weeks later, our limited investigative resources should have a more case-closed feeling about the deaths of these six people.

That is not the case because San Juan County, one of the largest counties in the United States and the center of commerce for the Four Corners region, does not have its own pathologist.

Instead, the state of New Mexico operates under a centralized system that requires all bodies in need of autopsy be sent to the crime labs in Albuquerque. That's a three-hour drive from Farmington, and one that requires numerous costs involved in moving the body back and forth, and sending the personnel required to accompany it.

The state lab does a good job of administering the autopsies, but then it must wait for long-delayed toxicology reports before releasing their final report.

The bottom line for

Advertisement
local investigators is, a hot case often turns cold while simply waiting on evidence they need to pursue it.

That means, for the public, a delay in closure in the death of a loved one, or on the other side of the spectrum, a delay in resolving the mystery behind unexplained deaths.

San Juan County needs a coroner.

It should not be an elected official as in the past before the centralized system was established 30 years ago, but rather a qualified pathologist.

The state will argue that is too expensive.

Locals should argue it is too expensive not having one.

Stationing a qualified pathologist here should be considered so that bodies don't have to be transferred and an autopsy can be done more quickly and in closer conjunction with the investigators involved.

Nor should New Mexico continue to tolerate the months-long wait for toxicology results.

It shouldn't take the answers to a half-dozen mysterious deaths all placed on hold to explain that.

Resting in peace is hard to do otherwise, for anyone, dead or alive.