Kane County coroner looks back on 12 years of challenges, changes, ‘trust issues’

As Kane County Coroner Rob Russell passes the baton to newly elected Coroner Monica Silva, he recalled that when he first took office 12 years ago, his tenure “started off tumultuous in the sense that the office was in chaos.”

The previous coroner, the late Charles West, was under indictment in 2010 on five felony charges of official misconduct. West died before the case concluded.

In a news release about his tenure, Russell wrote that trust in the office was fractured and he needed to fix it.

The first opportunity was to make an effort to find next of kin for 47 containers of unclaimed cremains. One had been there since 1952.

“This was unacceptable. The first thing we did was to utilize the media and publish the names of the deceased to the public in hopes someone would recognize them and claim them,” Russell said in the release. “Soon after the media ran the story, seven of the cremains were reunited with next of kin. Some of the stories that sprouted from this endeavor were truly inspiring and we were able to reunite people to next of kin as far as Australia.”

Other challenges were from what Russell described as years of neglect in the caretaking of the coroner’s office.

The Kane County Government Center on Batavia Avenue in Geneva formerly was a seminary that the county bought in 1972. The coroner’s office was its former laundry center.

“The facility we were in was mold infested, had asbestos and much of the equipment was breaking down,” Russell said in the release. “During Thanksgiving of 2013, a freezer stopped working and began to thaw out the remains of a decedent who was severely in a state of advanced decomposition. The only way to control the decomposition rate of bodies found in that condition is to freeze it.”

Without naming him, Russell’s release described a situation in which former County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen blamed Russell for the freezer breakdown.

“In addition to the trust issues with our collaborating partners, I had to continually fight the fight for significance and resources while being called a spendthrift,” Russell said in the release.

The conflict over the coroner’s office between Lauzen and Russell continued for years. In 2018, for example, the office was overwhelmed by the smell of nine decomposing bodies brought in from May 14 to June 9, with a 10th one brought in on June 19. The smell prompted complaints from other offices.

Although Russell had lobbied for a new facility – one that had showers, locker rooms and laundry facilities – then-chairman Lauzen suggested he share resources with the DuPage County Coroner’s Office in Wheaton.

“These problems belong in the coroner’s hands,” Lauzen said at the time. “Yet the coroner goes screaming ‘bloody murder and decomposing bodies.’ ”

On April 30, 2021, officials cut the ribbon on a new, 57,940-square-foot multi-use facility on the Judicial Center campus that houses the coroner’s office.

“Throughout my tenure, I was able to redirect the failing agency known as the Kane County coroner’s office from laughingstock to preferred stock,” Russell said in the release.

Under his leadership, the office became the first coroner’s office in Illinois to be accredited by the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. The office was reaccredited in 2020. Experts in the medicolegal death industry scrutinized the office’s operations, methods and procedures.

The office navigated through a mass shooting in Aurora, a worldwide pandemic and handled the most-ever death investigations in the county’s history, according to the release.

The office is only now seeing a reduction in opioid deaths. Last summer, the office distributed about 2,000 boxes of Narcan, attending more than 60 festivals and events.

Narcan or naloxone is a medication that reverses an opioid overdose.

The office also partnered with the Kenneth Young Center to place seven Narcan vending machines in the county.

“As a result, we already have documented savings of lives from those efforts in our community and beyond,” Russell said in the release.

Russell also worked with Sheriff Ron Hain to set up Kane County’s own crime lab, even securing a nearly $1 million federal grant. Russell will continue working to complete the lab as a consultant starting Jan. 1.

Silva, a chiropractor, and other countywide elected officials began their terms Dec. 1.

“Dr. Silva is a capable, wonderful person who can continue to build this office beyond what has already been established,” Russell said in the release. “We are top tier and I have no doubt that we will stay there.”