To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Kelly Lear, MD, Coroner, Coroner’s Office
Prepared By:
prepared
Daria Skorka, Autopsy/Histology Technician, Coroner’s Office
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presenter
Presenter: Daria Skorka, Autopsy/Histology Technician, Coroner’s Office
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Subject:
title
2:30 PM *DOJ Grant Opportunity: Forensic Science Improvement and Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Grant Program
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The purpose of this request is for the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to consider approving the electronic submission of two grant applications to the U.S. Department of Justice to update equipment for the histology lab in the Coroner’s Office, fund MDI training and get assistance with identifying unidentified cases.
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Alignment with Strategic Plan: Good Governance - Leverage technology to improve governance and service delivery.
Background and Discussion: The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office (ACCO) would like to submit a grant application to the Department of Justice to upgrade the ACCO’s Histology Lab, get assistance with identifying human remains and fund medicolegal death investigator training for ABMDI certification.
The Department of Justice Forensic Science Improvement and Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Grant Program supports the improvement of forensic science and medical examiner/coroner services provided by laboratories and offices.
The current equipment within the lab is 20+ years old. The equipment risks breaking down before funds are available to purchase new equipment for the lab. Due to the age of equipment, they can no longer be serviced. Additionally, when the equipment breaks down, specimens must be shipped to turn them into histological slides, which comes from the county budget. This slows down turnaround time for the medical examiners to review for autopsy reports and death certificates. There is a real concern about impacting quality control and the risk of specimens becoming lost or damaged by shipping them out of our custody. By upgrading the equipment, the Coroner’s Office will be able to produce higher quality histology slides that provide cause and manner of death for the citizens of Arapahoe County.
The Coroner’s Office has recently hired three new MDIs that will need to go to training courses for their ABMDI Certification. Unfortunately, there is limited funding to provide those trainings and anything over budget is paid for out of pocket by the investigator or they do not attend those training. This grant will allow MDIs to attend to all training opportunities to better their investigative skills and pass their ABMDI certification.
Currently, the Arapahoe County Coroner’s office has four sets of unidentified human remains. These remains have been identified as being male or John Does. The found-on dates for the individuals vary from 1982, 1998, 2024, and 2015 but all have proven to be challenging to identify. Attempts to identify the four Does include DNA extraction with profiling, circumstantial investigations, reconstructions, and fingerprints, and NamUs database, but all methods have had no success so far. These individuals, whether through an insufficient sample or a severely backed-up lab, have not yet had any profiles uploaded to databases. The longer it takes to ID them, the less likely identification becomes. For our community and as staff of the county, we are meant to serve those going through one of the most difficult times in their lives. With death comes great sadness but also a wonderful sense of community. Those who have no idea where their family members, those potentially in our care as John Does, do not have the opportunity to have a sense of closure, but also that sense of community. Part of grieving is coming together, and we are unable to provide that step in a family member's life if we do not know who they are. Through additional funding, we would be given the opportunity to diversify options and increase the likelihood of obtaining a profile that could lead to identifying John Does in our county. Additionally, this would open up new relations, resources, and provide more procedures when encountering future John or Jane Does.
The budgets and project scopes are being prepared and finalized but are expected to be over $200,000. The deadlines to apply for these grants are October 10 and October 27, 2025. Both grant periods last 36 months.
Alternatives: The Board could decline to move forward with this request as presented or determine another amount.
Fiscal Impact: If approved as presented, the fiscal impact to Arapahoe County will be a small amount of staff time to submit the grant application and potential grant funds received if the application is successful.
Alignment with Strategic Implementation Strategies: N/A
Staff Recommendation: Staff recommends approving ACCO’s request to apply for the grants.
Concurrence: N/A