Candidates for coroner compare their credentials

The race for a four-year term as Kootenai County coroner pits the 26-year chief deputy coroner against a six-year deputy coroner who also has worked in law enforcement and as a nurse.

Democratic candidate Jody DeLuca Hissong has worked for the coroner’s office for 28 years, first as a deputy, then as chief deputy beginning in 1984. Republican Debbie Wilkey has served as a deputy coroner since 2004, attending death scenes when the coroner or chief deputy is not available.

Wilkey has picked up the endorsement of current coroner Dr. Robert West, whose retirement opened the position. DeLuca Hissong has been endorsed by the Kootenai County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department Association. She has also been endorsed by the coroners from Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone and Ada counties.

DeLuca Hissong touts three decades in the coroner’s office while Wilkey promotes her education and background. DeLuca Hissong has a nursing degree from Idaho State University and worked 18 years as an office nurse before becoming a deputy coroner. Wilkey was a law enforcement officer for eight years, an emergency room and critical care nurse for 19 years and has a master’s degree in anthropology, which she said focused on forensics. She also has taught forensic anthropology at North Idaho College.

DeLuca Hissong said she has signed about 900 death certificates in the past five years.

“I’ve done it for so long,” she said. “I can go to a scene and assess and talk to the law enforcement and to the family and the physicians and make an assessment. There are a lot of times you can do a lot of tests on a person without doing a full autopsy and still get the same result.”

Wilkey said she also has attended numerous deaths scenes, particularly as an emergency room nurse. In addition, she said, her background in law enforcement gives her “invaluable” knowledge about suspicious deaths.

“I have a master’s degree. I have a bachelor’s degree. I am a registered nurse,” Wilkey said. “I am a former law enforcement officer. At age 19, I dealt with my first multi-fatality accident. I worked with criminal investigators building criminal investigations. As a nurse, I have worked in critical care.”

Discernment regarding which deaths require an autopsy is the crux of the job, as about 1,000 people die in Kootenai County every year, but funding does not allow all to be autopsied. Autopsies, which are done by a medical examiner in Spokane, cost about $2,500 apiece.

“If an extra 100 get ordered per year because somebody doesn’t know, that’s a quarter of a million dollars,” DeLuca Hissong said. “My experience and my knowledge saves the taxpayers’ money.”

Wilkey, however, said she realized in 1996 she wanted to be a death investigator or a coroner and has been studying and training for the opportunity since then. She said cause of death is determined by medical expertise, and she believes her “master’s-educated level” of training is “above an LPN (licensed practical nurse) level.” She added, “I have a master’s degree that has more scientific classes that go along with it.”

DeLuca Hissong, however, stands on her experience. She said she is conservative in how she spends taxpayers’ money and has found ways to save the county money. She said if an autopsy is warranted, one will be done, because the coroner is the voice for the deceased.

“We are their last voice,” DeLuca Hissong said. “I will do the right thing.”