It’s often Cassie Erpenbeck’s job to break the news to family members that a loved one has passed away suddenly.

“Each phone call can be very unnerving because you never know the reaction that you’re going to get on the other end of the line. You really just have to speak to them with compassion,” Assistant Director of Outreach Operations for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and a member of the Family Outreach Unit Cassie Erpenbeck said.

What You Need To Know

  • Family Outreach Unit acts as mortuary services for those who die of natural causes hospitals and healthcare facilities and for unnatural death cases investigated by the medical examiner, like homicides and accidents

  • Staffers say their caseload has increased since the start of the pandemic taking a physical and emotional toll on their unit

  • Still, they say staffers go above and beyond, including a case where outreach worker helped to save a woman’s life

“We act as mortuary services for those who die of natural causes hospitals and healthcare facilities but we also have the cases that are under the medical examiners jurisdiction that we investigate like homicides, accidents and things of that nature,” Erpenbeck said. 

It’s their job to help grief stricken relatives navigate the process of making final arrangements, a task that’s become even harder over the past two years.

“Ever since the pandemic hit, as you would assume it’s definitely an increase in our caseload, which is hard on everybody, for the work and just emotionally,” Erpenbeck added.  “Everybody is burnt out, and exhausted and we’re still going through it.”

Shivonne Hutson works as the executive director of Forensic Investigations within the OCME.  She says its operation center has had to adapt.

“We were engaging and taking custody of decedents that we normally would not have and this is because there were delays in funerary businesses. This impacted everyone so much,” Hutson said.

Hutson said staffers go above and beyond, like on a recent call when Erpenbeck had to help save a life when a woman she was speaking on the phone became unresponsive.

“Shortly after that I started to hear a gurgling sound,” Erpenbeck said.

Thinking quickly and remaining calm, she was to stay on the line and call the woman’s nursing home on another phone to tell them what was happening. 

“It was definitely nerve wracking because I knew something was wrong and I wasn’t there physically so I couldn’t just run to help her.  So, it was a matter of trying to figure out how to do that from being so far away," she said.

She says helping people get the help they need at a difficult time is just part of the job.

“It’s just a rewarding feeling to just be there for someone and help guide them through that process,” she said.