(Rush County, IN) – Brenda McMahan is familiar with death.
The Anderson native grew up above what was then the Rozelle Funeral Home on West Eighth Street, where her father worked as a mortician.
Despite the wide, inviting porch, none of her friends wanted to go there, and there weren’t many people there collecting candy on Halloween night, either. But mourners gathered to say goodbye to friends and loved ones, and those gatherings prepared McMahan for her decades of work with the deceased.
McMahan is finishing up her four-year term as medical examiner in Rush County, a county of nearly 17,000 people located roughly between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Before that, she spent nearly 30 years as an Indiana customs officer, investigating deaths that ranged from natural causes to nightmares.
Death, she said, often brings out the worst in people.
“It brings out everyone’s fears.”
For a coroner in rural Indiana, however, it is an honor and a duty to fulfill the responsibility of serving the area’s population. However, that sense of service does not always make up for the low pay and long hours most coroners face. For that reason, this election campaign is free of partisan politics in many counties, as residents are often just happy to have someone qualified to fill a thankless role.
This is the case in Rush County, where Scott Medd will succeed Republican McMahan when her term ends. Medd, a Democrat, is running unopposed for the office in a county that leans heavily Republican.
Medd’s resume makes him more than qualified for the job. He has 30 years of fire and emergency medical service experience and is a veteran of Desert Storm in Iraq.
Despite his education, he might not have been able to win against a less qualified Republican opponent because that party dominates the district.
“A lot of people said, ‘Why bother?’ I respect and appreciate that the Republican Party thinks highly of me and doesn’t turn anyone against me,” Medd said.
Politics should not play a role, he said. What matters is skills and the willingness to get involved.
“Not everyone wants to do the job.”
Why is the county coroner elected?
In the 2024 general election, federal and state offices are on the ballot—presidential, gubernatorial and senatorial races will make this November one to remember. But Rush County voters will also be voting for the less glamorous role of county coroner.
It’s a job that almost no one thinks about unless someone needs help.
The coroner and/or his deputies are called to respond to calls that may involve anything from a natural death in a nursing home to a fatal car accident. They interview witnesses to get a full picture of what happened, investigate to rule out homicide, perhaps collect maggot samples or testify at local court hearings, comfort grieving families, or order autopsies.
The coroner must then use all the information to record the cause, manner and mechanism of death. But before the investigation and training can begin, the coroner must be elected to office and run for a party.
“I don’t believe the coroner should be a member of either party because we serve both parties equally. We don’t treat a Republican any better than a Democrat and we don’t treat a Democrat any better than a Republican,” said Tony Ciriello, director of training for the Indiana Coroners Training Board.
“So I think our position should not be a partisan position and we should not have any affiliation, but that is not the case because that is what the state constitution says.”
To be qualified, according to the Education Committee, a person must be elected and have lived in their constituency for at least one year. Until 1994, there were no training resources for coroners or their deputies in Hoosier, and no prior qualifications were required to take the job. Starting in 2000, a curriculum was developed and training became mandatory for all deputy coroners.
The professional demands of a county coroner mix social, medical and legal concerns.
From working knowledge of local, state and federal laws, rules, ordinances and procedures to knowledge of general health precautions or dealing with potentially violent individuals, the bulleted list of job requirements for the Rush County Coroner and his deputies (as of December 2022) includes 25 items.
According to the Education Committee, forensic pathologists can also issue subpoenas, order autopsies or request toxicology tests on a corpse.
Duty calls
But despite the long list of responsibilities, current Deputy Coroner Scott Medd says he’s ready for the job as Rush County’s new coroner. He’s running unopposed for McMahan’s position and has completed his certification training.
“I mean, mind you, Indianapolis sees a lot more than we do, don’t get me wrong,” Medd said. “But you know, it all comes down to the same courses and the same training,” namely a 40-hour course given twice a year by the training committee, plus an internship.
A medical background is encouraged. Indiana law allows for medical examiners who are physicians to receive 1.5 times the base salary of their non-physician counterparts.
Although larger counties may have more deaths per year, the cost of investigating them can be very high, regardless of where they occur.
For natural deaths, such as old age, “you’re probably still looking at a good eight to 10 hours of work… And then if it’s something more profound, like Valerie Tindall or someone else, then you’re looking at days, weeks, months,” McMahan said.
Tindall, a 17-year-old girl from Rush County, went missing on June 8, 2023. During the investigation, McMahan stayed in contact with the sheriff’s department, which was housed in the same building as the coroner’s office, in hopes that the girl would be found.
After a nearly six-month investigation involving about 40 federal agents and local police officers, Valerie’s body was found on a neighbor’s property, according to court documents. In March 2024, Patrick Scott pleaded guilty to Tindall’s murder and was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.
McMahan said the case is exactly the kind of tragedy no county coroner wants to face.
“We were just hanging around here hoping that, to be honest, we would never be involved. But when it became clear that we were going to be involved, we got involved,” McMahan said.
McMahan will end her term with a salary of $13,000, even though she says she works around the clock. Deputy medical examiners are paid a little differently. For every 24 hours they are on call, they receive $50 in salary. For every investigation they conduct from start to finish, they receive $110.
“Of course, I’m not driving around in a hearse 24 hours a day, so I can get things done and be at home. But you never know when the phone is going to ring,” she said.
The job also requires emotional intelligence and professionalism, things that cannot be expressed in a report.
“A coroner is their last responder,” said Tony Ciriello of the education committee. Paramedics, firefighters and police officers may be the first to arrive on the scene, but it’s the last responders who bring closure to the families.
“We are the ones who knock on the door and say, ‘I am sorry to inform you that your mother, father, husband, wife or child has been killed or has died.’ And the way we begin that conversation impacts the grieving process in a family,” Ciriello said.
Despite the demands, or perhaps because of them, Medd is ready to take on his task.
“Someone has to make the time and be willing to do the work. You have to be willing to put in the effort and get up at two in the morning to go to someone’s house or fix a car accident or whatever. You have to be able to pull yourself together because you’re dealing with families and if you don’t want to do that, then you know you’re in the wrong profession.
But for Medd, service is a given and Rush County is his home.
“With the exception of my time in the Navy, I’ve always lived here,” he said. “I try to do my best to help people when I can.”
(Story by Nina Thompson/Mirror Indy and our news partners at Indiana News Service)
