Longtime Elkhart County chief deputy coroner retires

Jun. 30—ELKHART — The Elkhart County Sheriff's Office hosted a retirement sendoff for Elkhart County Chief Deputy Coroner John White on Tuesday.

Having served with the coroner's office for 22 years, White's last day will be Thursday.

"I am honored that I got to serve 22 years," he said. "It always sounds weird to say this, but I've really enjoyed serving the community, in helping families in a time of unimaginable stress. I enjoyed learning how to determine cause and manners of death. I tried to think recently how many cases I've worked. I would guess in the 22 years, I've probably worked over 2,500 death investigations."

White described his next chapter after retirement.

"I have so many projects that have been on hold for two to three years. For a while, I won't have any trouble staying busy," he said. "My wife is going to retire later, then we'll do some traveling while we're still in good health."

White offered some advice for those wanting to go into the coroner profession.

"The need will always be here — just like birth, everyone dies and (in) about 60% of cases of death, there is an investigation just to make sure it was proper, natural causes," he said. "There will never be a lack of work."

White reflected on a memorable and stressful day on the job.

"Probably the most stressful day in my time in this career, and I can't even tell you what year it was now, I had eight people killed at one time on the [Indiana] Toll Road," he said. "It was shortly after the two young girls had been misidentified down in Gas City, Indiana, on Interstate 69. There were two college girls that were on a Taylor University transport bus — one survived and one died at the scene.

"They mixed up their identity. The girl that survived was in a coma for about 10 days," he said. "When she came out of the coma, she was very confused why they were calling her this other girl's name. That was in my mind. Five of the eight people that died instantly out on the Toll Road were Amish. They don't carry ID's, they don't believe in pictures, so I had five people that I really didn't know who they were. Making sure we got them properly identified was paramount on my mind that day because I did not want to be embarrassed like what had happened down in Marion, Indiana."

White revealed one of the toughest parts of the job: teenagers.

"I would see someone 15, 16, 17 years old," he said. "They had their whole life in front of them, and because of usually a bad decision an accident happens and that life is gone, and all that promise is gone."

Joseph Weiser is a photojournalist for The Goshen News. Contact him at joseph.weiser@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2349 or (cell) 574-202-8479.