BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – An investigation finds failures by the Medical Examiner’s office were mostly to blame for improperly stored bodies at a local funeral home.

The Whatcom County Medical Examiner (ME) had stored bodies and performed autopsies at Moles Farwell Tributes in Bellingham since July 2023 while its facilities were being renovated. Gillies Funeral Home and Jerns Funeral Home both reported receiving severely decomposed bodies that had been stored at Moles in May of this year.

The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney contracted Kristofer Bundy of Bundy Law Group to investigate the allegations.

The investigation found that two bodies had decomposed because ME staff left them in an uncooled garage space at the Moles facility over a hot weekend.

The report documents poor communication on Friday, May 10 between the ME staff concerning transportation of the bodies to Green Acres, an off-site storage space for the office’s bodies.

Concerns over the ME were raised by people outside of the office during the investigation. For instance, the owner of Jerns Funeral Home said that the ME was very disorganized and never kept track of bodies. He regularly had to play “phone tag” with the ME to find out where bodies were.

The report says there is no documentation of where one of the bodies was stored before it was discovered in the garage decomposing on Monday, May 13, a few days after its autopsy. ME staff member Julia North discovered the bodies according to the report on Monday and did not find ice on the bodies, which contradicts statements from ME Chief investigator and Operations Manager Deborah Hollis that say she bought ice to be placed on them over the weekend.

Bundy concluded that this was a one-time event that involved just two bodies. He also notes that there has been significant disagreement among the involved parties about circumstances of this case, which was outside the scope of his investigation.

Currently, Whatcom County contracts Hunt Forensics run by Dr. Allison Hunt as Medical Examiner. Their contract is set to expire at the end of 2024.

County Executive Satpal Sidhu’s office says he and the ME have reached differing opinions about the report’s conclusions. That’s prompted him to begin a search for a new ME.

“I appreciate and value Dr. Hunt’s service to the County,” Executive Sidhu said in a statement. “She took on this role in the midst of the pandemic and during a period of an unprecedented number of homicides and overdoses. Preparing the Medical Examiner’s Office for accreditation has been very difficult work, and I deeply respect what she has accomplished here since 2021.

“Going forward, my administration will continue to provide the resources and support necessary to perform this core service and function for the public.”