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January 12, 2009

Coroner Murphree finds alternative to transport bodies

By Patrick McCreless

staff writer

Some county coroners may find it difficult to transport bodies to forensics labs once the state stops providing the service next week, but Gary Murphree will not be one of them.

“I’ve got somebody to do it,” said Murphree, coroner of Cullman County. “They’ll do it on an as need basis.”

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences recently announced it would stop transporting bodies to and from its labs in Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa beginning Jan. 19. The labs assist in death investigations.

“In the past, you’d just call the state and say you need an autopsy done and they’d come,” Murphree said. “At the completion of the autopsy, they’d transport the body to the funeral home of the family’s choice.”

According to the Associated Press, Forensics Department Director Michael Sparks said his agency has to cut 10 percent from its budget — about $1.4 million — because of the state's budget problems. He said transporting bodies is not mandated by state law and discontinuing it would save about $400,000.

“This happened once before, a few years ago,” Murphree said. “We came out okay.”

Murphree said he worked out an agreement with a state certified, private transporting company out of Decatur to deliver bodies requiring an autopsy to the department of forensics.

Murphree said he plans to work out a payment system with the Cullman County Commission.

Commission Chairman James Graves said he would discuss the matter Tuesday at the regular county commission meeting.

“It’ll be provided for one way or another,” Graves said. “I’d just like to get with our attorney first to advise us on how it should be done.”

Murphree noted that the expense to the county would not be large.

“It’d probably be around $200 per case,” he said. “And we may go a month where we won’t have one. It’s not a huge amount of money.”



‰ Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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