St. Croix medical examiner skips the scalpel, moves to virtual autopsy scans

The St. Croix County Medical Examiner’s Office is speeding up autopsies with the help of technology re-designed for the dead.

Instead of a scalpel, a CT scan will now take digital images to determine the cause of each person’s death. It’s a decision Chief Medical Examiner Patty Schachtner says she made to get ahead of a concerning trend affecting death investigators across the country.

According to a National Institute of Justice report, the forensics industry is facing a critical shortage of Board Certified Forensic Pathologists (BCFP), which are legally necessary to examine a body after a suspicious or unattended death.

The study states, “There are currently only 400-500 physicians who practice forensic pathology full time, less than half of the total estimated need for 1,100-1,200 forensic pathologists in the United States. The true number of BCFPs needed is likely much higher.”

Without a BCFP, bodies must be sent to the nearest county with a BCFP on staff, which St. Croix County does about 45-50 times per year.

“If you go from the Mississippi all the way to Green Bay, we only have access to out-of-state forensics. So we are dependent on Minnesota, basically to provide us with our autopsy needs,” Schachtner explained.

With county approval, a refurbished CT machine designed for postmortem autopsies was purchased for $198,000, a one-time cost to the county and its taxpayers. Between a brand-new CT scanner, which can retail for around one million dollars, and the financial commitment it takes to transport dependents over state lines for an autopsy, Schachtner says they saved a lot of money. The chief says it can cost around half of a million dollars each year to get the job done right without the new machine.

“We’re gonna be able to bring the decedent here, scan them, send it out to the cloud, and it will be sent to a forensic radiologist.”

Schachtner says besides a cost-saving decision, she hopes “virtual” autopsies will cause less stress for victims’ families.

“It’ll take about a three-day turnaround to get that interpretation back in that report, which for families is gonna be really, really, helpful in their journey of grief.”

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS was there as the forensics team wrapped up its training and quickly began using the scanner in real-life situations. While the program would officially launch Monday, the Chief Medical Examiner tells reporter Andrea Lyon they scanned at least two bodies over the weekend.

Many times over, the team told KSTP how happy they were to take advantage of the modern improvement, divulging the toll it takes on examiners when working so closely with the bodies during the investigation.

“Every aspect of this job is emotional because you’re dealing with a person who’s lost their life, whether it’s natural or otherwise,” Tina Forrest, Deputy Medical Examiner for St. Croix County, said. Forrest added it takes an incredibly compassionate and empathetic person to work in the field.

However, medical examiners say the worst trauma will be avoided in court. In every criminal case, autopsy photos are used as evidence, displayed for everyone in the courtroom to endure.

“This is gonna help on many, many levels,” Scachnter said, calling the past form of autopsy review re-victimization.

In July of 2012, Schachtner would be the one to respond to a horrendous call. Law enforcement found three young girls dead in their home. Their father had killed his children then called his ex-wife to tell her he had murdered their kids.

Ten years and an agonizing trial later, Jessica Lee Peterson says she wishes this technology was in place when she needed it.

“This is amazing that they can do this,” Peterson said.

As a social worker who now helps victims like herself, Peterson says she’s glad an option like the CT scanner is around for other families.

Amara, 11, Sophie, 8, and Cecelia, 5, first had to be identified. At the time, Peterson wasn’t in the right mindset to see her children in that state. Her parents offered, but friends and family wouldn’t let the burden fall on the girl’s grandparents either. Instead, Peterson says her brother carries the scars of identifying his slain nieces.

Peterson also tried to avoid most of the trial, which included seeing the gruesome crime scene photos and images of Amara, Sophie, and Cecilia’s bodies, which were used as evidence in the case.

“It’s not even just the people who loved the souls that inhabited those bodies, who will forever see them in another way,” Peterson said.

Peterson said she’s a major advocate of anything that can save any unnecessary heartache for victims, including the CT scanner.

“If we don’t even have to necessarily autopsy them, fully, like some of that trauma, we can use these scans to see what happened to them,” she added.

Going forward, St. Croix County investigators will be able to submit and use digital scans, which look something like MRI images, in court in place of pictures of people who have died.

Add in anticipated growth in American deaths due to the aging baby boomer generation, and the workload is only going to compound. So, it’s safe to say Schachtner is not only excited about the technology but is also relieved to know her team will be able to keep up with the growing demand of the dead.

“We don’t get to pick whom we serve. We just serve. That’s what we do,” Schachtner said.

“I think the biggest thing is every one of us is compassionate and empathetic because we know that our job is really to put together that final chapter of this person’s life’s book.”