Medical examiner: Houston County had no homicides, suicides or drug overdoses in 2024

Dr. Ross Reichert, chief medical examiner for the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office, told the Houston County Board that 144 deaths occurred in the county in 2024 and that 139 of those were reported to the medical examiner's office.

Reichert said the office performed 10 autopsies and signed 19 death certificates; the office also completed external examinations and signed death certificates without autopsy in 9 cases. "I will say in previewing this and going through the data in preparation, I've decided that I wanna move to Houston County," Reichert said. He later added, "I swear I'm not," when joking about moving to the county.

The report emphasized that the vast majority of deaths were natural; Reichert said there were no homicides, no suicides and no drug overdoses recorded in the county for 2024. "97 percent of the deaths pass through in some way through our office," he said, describing the office's role in recording causes and manners of death, and in passing data to the state health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for public-health tracking.

Reichert said the county recorded nine accidental deaths in 2024: one positional asphyxia, one burn (house fire), four falls, and three motor-vehicle accidents. He highlighted a shift in fall-related fatalities toward older age groups and an effort to track the location of falls (residence, assisted living, other). "We'd rather have more deaths reported to us and then be able to say this isn't something that we need to be further involved in than find out later," Reichert said, explaining why broad reporting helps public-health surveillance.

The office also noted a small increase in liver-related deaths compared with prior years; Reichert said the trend may reflect pandemic-era increases in alcohol use, though he cautioned the county's raw numbers are small and can shift per-capita rates in a low-population setting.

Reichert described regional staffing and resources: five forensic pathologists (recently expanded from four), a team of central-office death investigators (pathologist assistants), and front-line investigators who respond to scene calls. He also described cross-border coordination with Wisconsin medical examiners for incidents that occurred in Houston County but where decedents were transported across the state line.

Board members thanked Reichert for the report and exchanged brief questions about jurisdictional issues and regional comparisons. Reichert closed by offering to answer further questions and said the office will continue tracking falls, motor-vehicle fatalities and other accidental causes.

The county did not take a formal vote on the report; commissioners received the presentation and posed questions to Reichert and staff.