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Category: Highlights

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DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, GA

DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office uses ME/C funding to achieve Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation in 6 months

The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office used grant funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Strengthening Medical Examiner/Coroner (ME/C) System Program to prepare and apply for accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). These funds enabled the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office to prepare the necessary physical space for a fellow, acquire a multiheaded microscope, cover ACGME accreditation fees, develop a robust educational lecture series for incoming fellows, and support other requirements for ACGME accreditation. The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office attained ACGME accreditation just 6 short months after being awarded their ME/C Program funds!
January 2026
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Highlights

Timely Case Entry Leads to Rapid Identification in an Arizona Unidentified Human Remains Case

On March 31, 2025, unidentified human remains were discovered near a campsite in Payson, Arizona (Gila County). Despite a thorough investigation, local law enforcement and the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office were initially unable to determine the individual’s identity. 

On May 12, 2025, the Pinal County Medical Examiner entered the case into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a national database designed to support the identification of missing and unidentified individuals. The entry included detailed descriptions and photographs of the clothing found with the decedent, including a shirt, sweatshirt, and hat. Within 24 hours of the case appearing on NamUs’ public-facing site, concerned citizens began sharing the information on Facebook. By May 14, 2025, tips were coming in to both law enforcement and the medical examiner’s office — including one from friends of a man who had been living unhoused in the area. They recognized the clothing from the NamUs post and contacted authorities, reporting they had lost contact with him nearly three years prior.

The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office obtained dental records for the individual, which were then compared to the postmortem dental records of the unidentified decedent. This comparison confirmed a positive identification, restoring the individual’s name and identity. Next of kin were subsequently located and notified.

While this identification was not directly funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) grant to Pinal County, it powerfully illustrates one of the core objectives of the MUHR Program: the rapid entry of cases into databases like NamUs to aid in identification. This case demonstrates the impact of timely data sharing, the value of public engagement, and the critical role of collaboration and accessible tools in helping bring resolution to families and communities.

August 2025
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Highlights

Remains recovered in 2007 identified as diver who went missing in Florida, deputies say

Using funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program awarded to Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), and the work of FDLE’s Genetic Genealogy Investigations team, Volusia Sheriff’s Office detectives were provided a lead in 2025 for an unidentified human remains case that originated in 2007 after a diver went missing while off the coast of Ponce Inlet, Florida. With the help of the Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office and funding from the MUHR Program grant, the recovered remains were DNA sequenced and databased, after which FDLE’s Genetic Genealogy Investigations team conducted extensive analytical and genetic genealogy research. Their research resulted in an investigative lead that ultimately led to the positive identification of the victim—providing answers in a case that had remained unresolved for nearly two decades.
June 2025
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Highlights

She was left strangled outside. 46 years later, police found a suspect

More than 45 years ago, Kathryn Donohue, a 31-year-old union secretary, went out for dinner in Georgetown with co-workers after work. Early the next morning, on March 3, 1979, a person found her body in a parking lot in Glenarden, Maryland, miles away from where she lived in Arlington, Virginia. According to charging documents, she had been violently raped and strangled.
March 2025
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Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services, FL

Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services helps address the national shortage of medical examiners through ME/C funding

Since being awarded grant funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner (ME/C) System Program, the Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services (BCOMETS) has successfully trained seven forensic pathology fellows. BCOMETS has one current fellow nearing the completion of their fellowship, with another aspiring forensic pathology fellow set to begin July 1, 2025. Additionally, BCOMETS is concluding interviews for the 2026-2027 academic year, aiming to welcome their ninth forensic pathology fellow that will be funded through their ME/C Program grant.
March 2025
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District One Medical Examiner, FL

Florida’s District One Medical Examiner’s Office set to break ground on new standalone facility, thanks to ME/C funding

Florida’s District One Medical Examiner’s Office utilized funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner (ME/C) System Program to create the conceptual schematic design and layout for a new facility. This new facility will be the first ever standalone medical examiner’s office in their district’s 50-year history. This new facility will not only allow them to better serve the four counties in their district but will also support the requirements for National Association of Medical Examiner (NAME) accreditation. The District One Medical Examiner Director of Operations said “These ME/C Program funds were an integral piece to push the capital construction project forward. We were able to leverage these grant funds, along with state funding, to get the four counties that we serve to agree to provide the remaining funding necessary for the new facility. Without these ME/C Program funds, the project would not have gotten off the ground and we would be much further back in the process. Construction will begin in March 2025 with an anticipated completion of July 2026. The BJA funding through the ME/C Program made a big difference in our pursuit of a new facility that will meet the requirements for NAME accreditation.”
March 2025
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Highlights

Maui man walks free after 30 years behind bars, with help of Hawaiʻi Innocence Project

Gordon Cordeiro had been serving a term of life in prison without parole for charges stemming from an apparent drug deal robbery gone bad. Court records show that on August 11, 1994, Timmy Blaisdell, 20, of Kula was shot and killed, and his body was left at the bottom of a ravine. The petition filed by the defense claimed that the sole suspect, Michael Freitas, became the state’s star witness when he implicated Cordeiro as a means to protect himself.

“After the first trial ended in a hung jury, with 11 out of the 12 jurors [who] believed Cordeiro to be innocent, the State chose to rely on four additional…witnesses, who were all jailhouse informants,” the petition stated.

Prosecutors disagreed with the ruling. The prosecution alleged that Gordon robbed the victim by sticking his hands in the victim’s pockets and pulling out $800. The defense presented evidence that Gordon’s DNA was not in the pockets, but someone else’s DNA was. The judge determined that the new evidence surrounding DNA and lack of physical evidence linking Gordon to the scene, had a probability of changing the result if it proceeded to another trial.

Now at the age of 51, Gordon’s long-awaited homecoming has finally arrived. On February 21, 2025, Gordon was exonerated through the dedicated efforts of the Hawai’i Innocence Project supported in part by a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence (Postconviction) Program grant. Gordon called it “Freedom Friday” as he answered questions from media about his thoughts getting back to a world and community that is much different than what he knew in his 20s.

February 2025
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Highlights

Lehigh County Coroner’s Office achieves National Association of Medical Examiners accreditation through ME/C funding

Through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System (ME/C) Program, Lehigh County Coroner’s Office (LCCO) of Allentown, Pennsylvania improved their professional standards and services by achieving accreditation through the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME). Obtaining NAME accreditation represents a “seal of approval” from a community consisting of medical examiners, forensic pathologists, and medicolegal partners across the nation.
February 2025
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City of Cape Coral, FL

The City of Cape Coral’s uses Coverdell funds to purchase a full-spectral imaging device to support evidence detection and documentation

The City of Cape Coral, Florida utilized Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (Coverdell) Program funding to purchase a Crime-lite® AUTO for use in homicide investigations. The use of this full-spectral imaging device specifically assisted a neighboring law enforcement agency in detecting and documenting evidence in a homicide case that involved a stabbing. The imaging device’s infrared capabilities aided in revealing bloodstains on a suspect’s black shirt, which can be extremely difficult to detect, enabling the law enforcement agency’s technician to photograph the bloodstains and collect a sample for DNA analysis.
November 2024