It’s the last place most people want to think about, but the Clark County coroner’s office plays an essential and largely unsung role in the community.

The office investigates all deaths by violence and criminality, suicides, and unattended deaths outside a hospital setting. Its physical territory stretches from Searchlight to Mesquite and also includes Nye County, which has no coroner’s office.

This year has been particularly difficult for the professionals who work there, and it’s only in part due to the coronavirus pandemic that has sickened scores of citizens and taken more than 2,000 lives.

Understaffed and overworked in a year that has seen so much death, sources inside the office tell me morale has been particularly low following the August retirement of Coroner John Fudenberg after a five-year tenure.

It’s not just another county agency. In recent years, the office has been touted as the only one in the country accredited by both the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners and the National Board of Medical Examiners. As stressed as it is, this crew knows its business.

The search for Fudenberg’s full time replacement officially continues, but appears to have entered a holding pattern. Fudenberg’s total pay was approximately $172,000, according to online sources.

Now Assistant Coroner Brett Harding has announced his decision to leave the office at the end of the year. Harding has led in an interim capacity in recent months as staffing concerns have mounted. He said in a brief interview he was accepting another professional opportunity. 

No one in management is willing to say the office is in crisis, but multiple sources confirm it suffers from a shortage of forensic pathologists, investigators and other staff. Harding acknowledged the office is operating three forensic pathologists short.

The county manager’s office, meanwhile, has announced the hiring of former Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy as a consultant in an attempt to keep the office functioning at a high level despite its challenges. 

The county has found a known quantity in Murphy, who has signed a 90-day contract. He certainly knows his way around the building. The Las Vegan joined the office as assistant coroner in 2002 during the final years of Coroner Ron Flud’s long tenure. After eight months, Flud retired and Murphy was named coroner. He served in the position for the next dozen years before retiring and accepting a position as director of special services with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

After 18 months in Arlington, Virginia, with the private nonprofit that operates a global missing children’s network, Murphy returned to Southern Nevada and opened a consulting business. Now he’s getting reacquainted with his former office and says he’ll work daily to get up to speed.

“What I’m seeing is a lot of hardworking, dedicated people who want to get the work done and continue serving the citizens,” Murphy says. Despite its current challenges, “This office is going to move forward.”

Although COVID-19 deaths that occur in the hospital generally bypass the coroner’s, suspected cases that occur outside that setting are tested in the field.

Murphy calls questions about the pay and staffing at the office only part of a larger picture. Fact is, there’s a national shortage of forensic pathologists. The medical necessary to prepare for the work is extensive, and the duty is difficult. According to Medpagetoday.com, pathology as a field of professional work was being pursued by just 1.1 percent of U.S. medical students in 2019. Back in 2013, it was predicted the country would require 1,100 board-certified forensic pathologists. Seven years later fewer than half that were on the job. As another sign that the shortage is unlikely to abate any time soon, the average age of working forensic pathologists continues to rise.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the shortage, but the explosion of opioid, fentanyl and methamphetamine deaths has made the work overwhelming in some areas, according to a report by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. 

The realities of the current state of the profession aside, Murphy says Clark County has a lot to offer someone who wants to dedicate themselves to an admittedly difficult profession.

“The goal is to continue to provide the high quality of service the office has always done,” Murphy says.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR. His newest book—a biography of iconic Nevada civil rights and political leader, Joe Neal— “Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice” is published by University of Nevada Press and is available at Amazon.com. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith