UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Union County plans to build an autopsy center that will serve nine North Carolina counties.
The facility, which will likely be built in Monroe, will be named the Southern Regional Autopsy Center.
Union, Montgomery, Stanly, Cabarrus, Anson, Gaston, Moore, Richmond and Rowan counties will utilize the facility. It will be designed to alleviate the backlog of autopsies and toxicity tests in the state and speed up the time it takes to solve drug-related death investigations.
“As our population continues to grow, there's just not enough facilities to perform those services,” Chief Deputy Tony Underwood with the Union County Sheriff’s Office said.
For several years, the Union County Sheriff’s Office sent its autopsies to Mecklenburg County to be performed. Underwood said in 2022, UCSO learned it would have to begin sending its cases to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Wake County. However, Underwood said it took several months to get test results back. At that time, the number of people dying from fentanyl was increasing in Union County.
“Getting the results on drug overdose cases, the time involved in that is still a long, long process,” Underwood said. “The reason being is because of the toxicology work. The toxicology work that is required in those cases takes months and months, if not even a year or longer.”“Getting the results on drug overdose cases, the time involved in that is still a long, long process,” Underwood said. “The reason being is because of the toxicology work. The toxicology work that is required in those cases takes months and months, if not even a year or longer.”
In 2023, Union County worked with state leaders to secure $20 million from the state legislature to build an autopsy center. UCSO hopes the facility will help law enforcement agencies bring answers to families whose loved ones died from drugs.
“We want to do everything we can to ensure that justice is served for that family,” Underwood said. “To think that there are services out there that could be provided but we just can't do it because it's not readily available or it takes too long to do, that's not an acceptable answer.”
Barb Walsh’s daughter, Sophia, died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021. She had just graduated from college and was beginning her career.
“She drank a bottle of water that had fentanyl in it, and she did not know,” said Walsh, the executive director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.
Walsh said she had to wait five months until she received her daughter’s toxicology results. She is hopeful Union County’s new facility will bring answers to families more quickly.
“I think it's very needed,” Walsh said. “I think it's sad that it's needed, but the victims deserve dignity and respect of being handled within their own community. And, the families deserve to know the results quicker.”
Liz Cooper, Union County’s public communication’s director, told Spectrum News 1 the county “has not yet contracted with an architecture and engineering firm” to begin designing the autopsy center. It is not yet known when construction will begin.
