Regional Forensic Center: a ‘busy body’ place

Tom KingFarragut

Chris Thomas is in his third year as the chief administrative officer and director of the Knox County Regional Forensic Center. Stated simply, the center’s primary purpose is to provide autopsy services to 23 East Tennessee counties and act as the medical examiner’s office for Knox and Anderson counties.

And this center is blowing and going 24/7/365. They even work on Christmas Day. The center has 37 employees, including six doctors and 10 investigators. Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan is the chief medical examiner and is responsible for the medical side of the center.

Thomas, a former member of the Rotary Club of Farragut, was our speaker for our March 9 meeting, and he shared some fascinating news and numbers from the center.

“We investigate all deaths to determine the cause of death and then pass our findings on to the appropriate agency,” Thomas said. “We also investigate the scenes at the locations of the deaths.”

He shared some very interesting facts and figures with us. Here are a few of those:

  • The youngest suicide victim he has seen was 9.
  • Two years ago the center performed 1,970 autopsies. Last year that number jumped to 2,818.
  • They keep the remains of people whose cases have not been solved, and today they have 17 of those.
  • The 10 investigators last year worked at more than 1,500 scenes.
  • The average autopsy takes three hours to perform.
  • Infant deaths are not rare, and a number of infants are accidental victims of being smothered in bed by a parent.
  • Doctors and investigators spend a lot of time in courtrooms to give expert testimony.
  • When discussing the causes of death, he said the primary one is “drugs, drugs, drugs and more drugs” in East Tennessee.
  • They also review drug prescribers to check for patterns of opiods being prescribed for a number of individuals from the same source.
  • He also said he thanks God for tattoos. “That’s a good way for us to ID the homeless,” he said.
  • They work closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI and TBI to stay up-to-date on the new drugs being used and information necessary for arrests and prosecutions.

Thomas also said that the center has its own “body farm” like the famous one at the University of Tennessee. The forensic center’s farm is in Morgan County in the Cumberland Forest.

“There is a lot of stress in the jobs that we do, and it takes a very special person to do what all we do,” he said. “The stress is real, and when cases involve small children, and we have a number of them, the stress and emotions are hard to handle at times.”

To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, call 865-659-3562. Farragut Rotary meets each Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at Fox Den Country Club. Tom King, a past president of Farragut Rotary, has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.

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