Former South Bend chiropractic office could become St. Joseph County's new morgue

SOUTH BEND — It’s been a long wait, but it looks like St. Joseph County is finally going to have its own morgue.

St. Joseph County Commissioners are expected to decide Tuesday whether to allow the purchase of a former chiropractic office at 1622 East Mishawaka Avenue that will ultimately be refurbished and outfitted to serve as a morgue.

Earlier this year, the county approved spending $380,000 in money from the American Rescue Plan for Coroner Dr. Patricia Jordan to buy and renovate space for a morgue.

For more than a decade, coroners here have complained about the county’s lack of a morgue.

A morgue would ultimately allow the county to perform its own autopsies rather than sending bodies to Kalamazoo or Fort Wayne. But Jordan previously told the Tribune that a morgue also would give the county a place to store bodies and provide space where families could view deceased loved ones.

Without its own morgue, the coroner’s office has been using a cooler at a local cemetery, then moving bodies for family identification or tasks such as blood draws and organ donation, which could also potentially be handled at a new facility.

Jordan didn't immediately respond to a voicemail or text from a reporter Monday morning.

The coroner’s office handles close to 500 cases a year, which include not only homicides, suicides, fatal crashes and drug overdoses, but also unattended deaths by natural causes or those that occur under unusual circumstances.

The $380,000 approved by the council includes $200,000 for a building, $118,000 for improvements and $62,000 for equipment.

Efforts to establish a morgue here go back at least 15 years. In 2008, St. Joseph County was close to partnering with Elkhart County to build a morgue where autopsies could be conducted for both counties. St. Joseph County earmarked about $700,000 in local income tax money, but the plan fell through amid the economic downturn.

In 2015, St. Joseph County was ready to commit to a proposal by the South Bend Medical Foundation, under which the foundation would lease a morgue and forensic center, and the two counties would pay an annual flat fee to have autopsies conducted there.

Long discussed: Better morgue and autopsy facilities sought for St. Joseph County

Elkhart County backed out of that plan after deciding the fee proposed by the medical foundation was too expensive.

Jordan has said, she hopes St. Joseph and Elkhart county officials can resume talks about having autopsies conducted here once the new facility is completed.

There’s a possibility the morgue could be ready by the end of the year.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend chiropractic office could become St. Joseph County morgue