Drugs, alcohol, vehicles, falls, guns and suicide continue to be leading causes of deaths investigated by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to its 2018 Annual Report.
Credit: Artist: PJ Puterbaugh San Diego County Medical Examiner’s investigators are asking for the public’s help to identify a man who suffered severe burn injuries and told first responders his name was Randy.
Valuable comparisons and conclusions can be drawn from the types and circumstances of sudden unexpected deaths that occur in San Diego County, and in changes over time. Officials with the San Diego County Department of the Medical Examiner are releasing 22 years’ worth of data–from 1997 to the third quarter of 2018–in a free searchable online portal. The site makes over 59,000 records available.
If your exposure to forensic pathology is TV crime shows, you may think it’s purely a tool for solving criminal cases. But the science behind determining a cause of death has tremendous value at a personal level for those who have lost a family member and for society as a gauge of public health and safety.
During large disasters, medical examiners from across the country help the affected area with identifying those who died as quickly as possible so that families can get answers about their loved ones.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office is asking the public to help identify a young woman who was struck and killed by a vehicle Aug. 9 while trying to run across the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 just south of the San Clemente Border Patrol Station checkpoint.
Update: The woman has been identified and her family was notified. The Medical Examiner’s Office will release her name after her family has had time to notify other relatives.
