Dougherty County coroner provides job overview

ALBANY — Not everyone would happily trade jobs with Michael Fowler. As Dougherty County coroner he’s up and showered by 3 a.m. — if he’s even slept at all. His days and nights are filled with drownings, highway accidents, suicides and grief, with death at the center of it all.

“I love what I do,” Fowler told members of the Exchange Club of Albany Friday. “I get up every morning ready to go out and help someone.”

While most natural deaths are reported only to a funeral home or physician, Fowler said in certain circumstances state law requires a coroner investigation. According to Fowler, the investigations require determination of the manner of death —suicide, accidental, homicide, natural causes or undetermined — and also the specific cause of death, whether natural or otherwise.

“On occasion someone dies in water, or under a bridge and we don’t know who they are,” Fowler said. “In those cases we may have to take pictures and fingerprints, X-rays, or even test their DNA.”

Fowler said he and his two deputy coroners are trained to examine bodies for overt signs of medical issues, such as swollen ankles as an indication of heart problems.

“If you look at a body close enough for the trace evidence, blood patterns and how the body was laid out, it can tell you a lot,” Fowler said. “If you just want to get out of there, that makes a problem for the family because they want to know what happened to their loved one.”

If additional help, including autopsies, is required in determining a cause of death, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic lab in Macon is available, Fowler said.

Fowler said an assumption of homicide is considered in every death investigation, even when results may seem obvious. Then, the cause will be downgraded to natural or other category of death if warranted by evidence and facts.

“The family often wonders why we’re asking all our questions,” Fowler said, “or even wonder if I think they killed the deceased. But we we have to start with homicide or people could be walking all over the evidence.”

In an apparent case of suicide by self-inflicted gunshot, full investigations must be conducted, Fowler said.

“We would have to try to determine if someone might have shot the victim, then put the gun in his hand to make it look like suicide,” Fowler said. “Planting a pistol is an easy thing to do.”

According to Fowler, in cases of accidental death, it’s his job to help determine what may have caused the accident.

“Was the victim texting when he shouldn’t be? Were they taking drugs? Insurance companies want to know those things, and that’s one of the biggest things a coroner does.”

Coroners are vested with legal powers similar to those of law enforcement officers, Fowler said, and in situations where it’s warranted, they can issue subpoena, or declare an inquest.

“If need be I can summon people to court,” Fowler said, “where witnesses can come in and talk about the circumstances of a death. Then a jury can decide.”