For years, Dr. Quinn Strobl has appeared before the Wright County Board of Commissioners to give the board an annual report of the deaths that occurred in the county the previous year. In 2016, however, the eyes of the world are on the chief medical examiner-coroner of the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.
Strobl appeared before the county board at its Tuesday, April 26, meeting for an agenda item that had been set weeks earlier. Given the scope of the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, Strobl and her staff are the contracted medical examiners for 19 counties in the state.
That not only includes Wright County, but also Carver County, where Strobl and her staff conducted the autopsy of music icon Prince. The results of that autopsy are expected in the next couple of weeks.
Whether it’s the death of a farmer in a rural area or a rock and roll legend, Strobl said all autopsies are conducted the same way.
"Our office investigates deaths that fall under the medical examiner’s jurisdiction or have to be reported to the medical examiner," Strobl said.
While the death of a worldwide celebrity is going to draw a lot of attention, for Strobl’s office that celebrity is just one more in a long line of cases that come to her office with law enforcement and family members looking for a definitive cause of death.
Wright County deaths
In 2015, the medical examiner conducted 49 autopsies out of 481 deaths that occurred in Wright County. Of those, the majority were for medical reasons like heart attacks and strokes. The largest single category of autopsies, unfortunately, involved suicides.
Of the 49 autopsies, 17 were the result of suicides – seven hangings, six gunshot wounds, two drownings, one blunt force trauma from a jump and one a combination of mixing drugs and alcohol. Of the 17 suicides, 12 were men and five were women
Strobl said that while the 2015 totals were the highest in the last four years, the numbers tend to remain consistent within counties and from county to county from one year to the next.
"If you look at the five-year statistics, there are a little bit of highs and a little bit of lows from year to year," Strobl said. "The percentage usually remains about the same, but it varies – the peak being 18 in 2011, followed by 12, 12 and 13, and then last year there was a little bit of a bump to 17. But, the percentages usually remain about the same in all of our counties."
Strobl said that her office works closely with law enforcement to determine the cause of death and potentially whether criminal charges should be filed. She said her office is forthcoming with information on the cases put under its charge, with the exception of extremely high profile cases like that of Prince’s autopsy.
"I can answer any questions…those unrelated to Carver County," Strobl said.
While her office likely will never conduct another autopsy for as high a profile as Prince, it will continue to investigate all deaths within its jurisdiction and attempt to provide the answers both families and law enforcement seek.
Other items
In other business, the board:
■ Hosted students as part of the county’s annual Boy-Girl County Day. The event brings high school juniors to the county courthouse to get a first-hand glimpse of how county government operates. It included a short session with the county board, as well as presentations from several county departments. This year, students represented Dassel-Cokato, Maple Lake and Monticello High Schools.
■ Authorized signatures on the 2016 Minnesota Cities Participation Program. The MCPP is a program that has been in place for more than 20 years that offers first-time homebuyers the opportunity to access low-interest loans. Historically, Wright County has not only exhausted its entire allocation every year, in most years it has accessed funding that went unused by other counties.
■ Referred discussion of setting county assessment contract rates to the Wednesday, May 11, ways and means committee.
■ Authorized sending a letter to the Stearns County Board of Commissioners in response to a letter from Stearns County concerning the Clearwater River Watershed Joint Powers Board. Stearns County imposes term limits on board-advisory committee members and said that, for the purposes of uniformity, Wright and Meeker counties – co-members of the watershed board – should put term limits on its members.
The board approved sending a letter saying it doesn’t plan on putting term limit restrictions on its board members.
■ Approved a pair of appointments to the Wright County Extension Committee. Joey Hartley was named a youth appointment to the committee through Aug. 31, 2016. Commissioner Charlie Borrell appointed Tammi Dahlman to represent his commissioner district. Her term will run through Dec. 31, 2016.
■ Referred discussion of elevator repairs in the county courthouse to the Wednesday, May 11, building committee meeting.
■ Authorized attendance at the next meeting of the Sauk River Watershed Board at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, at Sauk Centre High School.