{"id":19467,"date":"2019-10-18T09:21:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/comfort-in-a-crisis\/"},"modified":"2019-10-21T08:52:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T14:52:41","slug":"comfort-in-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/comfort-in-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Comfort in a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Grand County Coroner Brenda Bock and Deputy Coroner Tawnya Bailey reflect on the extremes of their jobs. Often, the professionals are dealing with gruesome deaths and grieving families within the same day, so they’ve gotten used to being prepared for anything and everything.<\/strong>
Eli Pace \/ epace@skyhinews.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On a clear May afternoon, Jim McCormick was enjoying some down time working on his cabin in Steamboat Springs when he got the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a surreal moment,\u201d McCormick recalled.<\/p>\n

Earlier that day in Granby, a 2002 Ford F-250 eastbound on US Highway 40 rear-ended the vehicle in front of it. That collision pushed the truck into the westbound lane where it crashed head-on with a sedan.<\/p>\n

The driver and the passenger of the sedan were the 24th and 25th deaths in the county this year. But to Grand County Coroner Brenda Bock and Chief Deputy Coroner Tawnya Bailey, they were Raymond Allen and Betty Jean Shelton and there was a family to tell.<\/p>\n

McCormick answered the call around 3:30 p.m. May 15. The voice on the other end of the phone was Bock\u2019s, and her first question after delivering the devastating news was: \u201cWhat do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked her to keep the office open late so he could identify his parents-in-law before heading home to his family in Lakewood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really knew the last thing we wanted to do was drive back to Kremmling for anything,\u201d McCormick said. \u201c(Brenda) could have easily said, \u2018This is the process we have to do and you have to fall in line with the process,\u2019 but she built the process in line with my needs. When you get that, you\u2019ve got someone who\u2019s gone way above what they\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCormick wanted to be the one to identify his parents-in-law for his family\u2019s sake, but he wasn\u2019t sure what to expect once he made it to the Coroner\u2019s Office in Kremmling that evening.<\/p>\n

He found Bock and Bailey had already thought about how hard it could be for McCormick, and they had prepared the bodies accordingly and rearranged their own schedules to be there for him that evening. If he had needed it, McCormick could have grabbed one of the dozens of teddy bears placed throughout the office for comfort.<\/p>\n

For McCormick, that level of care made one of his worst days about as good as it could have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just a real sensitivity to us as a family that we really needed at the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like I could have asked for anything and if they could have done it, they would have.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE HARDEST CALLS<\/p>\n

At the coroner\u2019s office, that kind of response is standard. According to Bock and Bailey, working with the deceased\u2019s family is often the most difficult \u2014 and most rewarding \u2014 part of their job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that when you get that phone call from us or we come knocking on your door, we have changed your life completely,\u201d Bock said. \u201cThey are not just a number, they are someone\u2019s loved one and we have to treat them that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Bock and Bailey had to inform the families or next of kin of 66 people who died in Grand County.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, they were strangers, but often the deceased were neighbors, friends, relatives, members of the church or local figures. Other times, they were suspects in a crime, addicts or behaved recklessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether they did right or wrong, or why we\u2019re investigating their death, they are still somebody\u2019s loved one,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n

When it comes to informing the next of kin, coroners never know what to expect. They have to be prepared for tears, anger, denial, indifference and sometimes happiness.<\/p>\n

The call gets exponentially harder when the manner of death is suicide or undetermined. In 2018, six people died by suicide and two deaths were undetermined, according to the 2018 Coroner\u2019s Report.<\/p>\n

These scenarios in particular highlight another most important aspect of the job, which Bock described as \u201cwriting the last chapter\u201d of someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are giving answers to the family about what happened to their loved one,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are very protective of the decedent because we are writing that last chapter for them and we want to make sure it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAST RESPONDERS<\/p>\n

Coroners are called to a variety of scenes and investigate sudden and unexpected deaths. Using medical records, evidence at the scene, any personal information that can be gathered and anything else that might help, they try to determine the manner and cause of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are kind of the last responder,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n

The cause of death describes the medical condition that caused the death, such as heart failure or blunt force trauma, while the manner of death is the coroner\u2019s best judgement on whether the death was an accident, natural, a suicide, homicide or undetermined.<\/p>\n

Determining the manner of death is especially difficult because it\u2019s hard to prove intention after the fact, Bock noted. It\u2019s also getting more expensive because of the rising costs of toxicology and pathology tests.<\/p>\n

Despite having 19 fewer deaths in 2018 than the year before, the cost for the Coroner\u2019s Office to investigate each death skyrocketed from $2,192 to $3,479.<\/p>\n

Man hours also make up a good portion of the cost. Like first responders, coroners must be ready for any situation when it comes to removing the body to take it back to the office.<\/p>\n

According to the report, almost half of the deaths last year occurred outside a residence or medical facility.<\/p>\n

Grand County\u2019s terrain and weather often make their job unpredictable, Bailey explained, as she rattled off a few examples, like the times they\u2019ve had to snowshoe, ride horses, raft down a down river or hike peaks to get to a scene.<\/p>\n

In fact, the only thing Bailey can predict is the unpredictability of her job. No two days or weeks or years ever look the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath has no timeline,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd death is not usually convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grand County Coroner Brenda Bock and Deputy Coroner Tawnya Bailey reflect on the extremes of their jobs. Often, the professionals are dealing with gruesome deaths and grieving families within the same day, so they’ve gotten used to being prepared for anything and everything.Eli Pace \/ epace@skyhinews.com On a clear May afternoon, Jim McCormick was enjoying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 02:26:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19514,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19467\/revisions\/19514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}