Lubbock County Judge Tom Head announced this week Texas Tech Health Sciences Center officials recently informed him the school intends to end its contract to manage the Lubbock County Medical Examiner's Office by the fall of 2009, saying the forensic work doesn't fit the school's overall mission.

According to Howard County Justice of the Peace Kathryn Wiseman, that decision leaves the Big Spring area in limbo.

“We'll simply have to find another medical examiner's office to contract with,” said Wiseman. “Currently, we don't have any other contracts with other offices, so we' don't have anything up our sleeves. We'll just have to start over, for the most part.

“This is certainly going to mean an increase in costs, if for no other reason than transporting the bodies. Currently, the funeral homes handle that, but I imagine we're going to have to travel a lot farther.”

Wiseman said Howard County currently pays $2,000 per autopsy.

“It costs the county $2,000 for each autopsy, plus the cost of any labs. There's also an increase in the cost for autopsies on infants,” said Wiseman. “I'm not sure how those costs compare to other medical examiner's offices, so we could end up paying considerably more wherever we go. It's just too early to say.”

The upcoming search for a new medical examiner's office won't be the first Howard County has faced, according to Wiseman.

“We began looking for someone else to contract with a few years back,” said Wiseman. “The Lubbock office was taking up to four months to get some death certificates back. A family is basically left in limbo until they get that death certificate, so we began looking, however, we never found anything. It looks like we'll be looking again.”

Wiseman said Howard County currently has several autopsies pending with the Lubbock County Medical Examiners Office, including the autopsies of a pair of Big Spring residents killed in a drive by shooting in early May.

Valerie Garcia, 20, and Michael Cardona, 21, both of Big Spring, were pronounced dead at Scenic Mountain Medical Center shortly after a shooting was reported at 905 E. 16th St. at 9:38 p.m. Sunday, May 4. According to police reports, Garcia was pregnant at the time of her death.

“If they are going to keep going until next fall, I'm sure they will finish the autopsies they have already started, such as the shooting victims,” said Wiseman. “However, as we get closer to that deadline, it's going to raise some serious questions.”

Howard County Commissioner Jerry Kilgore said the announcement raises some concerns for the already stretched thin budget facing commissioners in 2009.

“There's little doubt no matter what we do, it's going to cost more,” said Kilgore. “We'll just have to see what we can find. We may have to go as far as Dallas. It's hard to say at this point.”

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it