Idaho is taking steps to bolster its antiquated coroner system following tales by ProPublica that documented how lawmakers have repeatedly failed to repair issues that hurt grieving households.
An advisory panel created final yr on the request of Gov. Brad Little is growing laws to require autopsies in quite a lot of circumstances, together with the unexplained dying of a kid. It could assist coroners pay for these autopsies so long as they get a nationwide certification that proves they’ll meet sure requirements.
The laws would mimic the same setup in neighboring Washington. A rise in charges on Idaho dying certificates would finance the post-mortem reimbursements.
A ProPublica assessment of lots of of dying data in 2024 discovered that some coroners failed to satisfy nationwide requirements when investigating baby and toddler deaths, and a state oversight report discovered Idaho ranked final within the U.S. for autopsies when youngsters or infants died unexpectedly. The state Workplace of Efficiency Evaluations cited poor funding as a serious drawback.
ProPublica’s examination of coaching data for Idaho coroners additionally revealed that many did not get the hours of constant schooling required by state legislation. Additional reporting in 2025 examined how doubtlessly suspicious deaths can slip via the cracks of Idaho’s poorly funded system.
The committee engaged on the laws consists of seven county coroners and a deputy coroner; representatives of metropolis, county and state legislation enforcement companies; a deputy county prosecutor; a county commissioner and a tribal member.
Kelli Brassfield, co-chair of the panel and a lobbyist who represents Idaho’s county governments, cautioned that the proposal doubtless gained’t be prepared in the course of the 2026 annual legislative session. However that is the primary time in many years that coroners and different native and state officers have agreed on a path ahead to enhance Idaho’s system for investigating dying.
Idaho’s dying investigation system is nearly fully funded by counties, and county officers have fought previous efforts to require autopsies, which may price 1000’s of {dollars} apiece. On the committee’s assembly in January, Brent Mendenhall, a commissioner from Madison County, was enthusiastic in regards to the draft laws and the push for extra autopsies.
“After I hear {that a} fee or any county has turned down an post-mortem, it simply makes me shudder,” Mendenhall stated on the assembly. “I simply assume, ‘What are you doing to that household that doesn’t know what occurred?’”
Mendenhall stated that beneath the laws being developed, coroners who’ve struggled with a small post-mortem funds may strategy their county commissioners and say, “Right here’s the legislation, and you might want to be sure that I can do that.”
The advisory panel engaged on laws is co-chaired by Sen. Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat. Wintrow stated ProPublica’s reporting raised consciousness of the harms executed by a defective system for dying investigations.
“Right here’s the system going incorrect, and your reporting shines a lightweight on it,” she stated.
Bingham County Coroner Jimmy Roberts, a member of the panel, advised ProPublica that Wintrow has stated repeatedly that one of many motivators to get one thing executed about Idaho’s coroner system is that “she doesn’t need to see the coroner system within the media or within the information any longer.”
“I feel that speaks volumes,” Roberts stated.
Idaho’s governor stated greater than a yr in the past that he would assist giving coroners extra assets to do their jobs proper. Lawmakers did not take him up on it.
Wintrow gained modest modifications to the coroners system in the course of the 2025 session with laws that clarified the roles of coroners and legislation enforcement in dying investigations.
One other growth within the wake of ProPublica’s reporting is a newly created sequence of intensive programs for coroners, legislation enforcement officers and others across the state to discover ways to deal with baby and toddler deaths. Funded by a grant from the Governor’s Kids At Danger Activity Drive, the programs this spring would be the most in-depth coaching of its form since 2019.
Roberts and Ada County Chief Deputy Coroner Brett Harding will lead the trainings: eight hours of digital schooling for coroners statewide and in-person schooling for coroners within the Boise space and in jap and northern Idaho. Japanese Idaho is the place an toddler, Onyxx Cooley, died all of the sudden and unexpectedly in February 2024. His mom, Alexis Cooley, discovered him chilly and lifeless and known as for assist, however the child couldn’t be revived.
Studies launched to ProPublica by the coroner who was legally accountable for determining why the infant died confirmed that he didn’t comply with nationwide pointers. He didn’t communicate with the mother and father, look at the infant’s physique or the scene of the dying to seek for clues or order an post-mortem. That coroner, who has since retired, advised ProPublica he spoke with legislation enforcement officers who responded to the toddler’s dying and relied on the emergency doctor who examined the infant’s physique to determine what induced his dying.
Alexis Cooley advised ProPublica that she hoped the dying of her child wouldn’t be in useless, and that sharing his story with the general public may set in movement some optimistic change.
She started to cry when she discovered that coroners are engaged on laws to enhance Idaho’s last-in-the-nation post-mortem fee for unexplained baby deaths, and that first responders and coroners across the state will get specialised schooling to deal with these circumstances.
“I’m glad that via my ache and struggling that it’s hopefully lessening the burden on different mother and father, when a state of affairs like this occurs once more,” Cooley stated. “And it’s superb that they’re going to have the ability to get solutions and that Onyxx’s case was heard.”
Wintrow, in the meantime, stated her committee members’ willingness to work collectively on an answer to issues is encouraging however that progress is gradual and piecemeal in a system with no centralized state company to develop public coverage for coroners. She is engaged on a pitch to get Idaho a full-time coordinator to fill a task that she has performed as a part-time legislator.
