Castro
For the first time in its history, the Johnson County Coroner’s Office has a full-time employee.
Nineveh resident Valerie Castro has been hired as the office’s administrative deputy coroner. In this role, she is responsible for payroll, case file management and field support of deputy coroners. She’ll also manage day-to-day operations at the coroner’s office and assist with death investigation scenes as needed, according to the coroner’s office.
Originally from Miami, Florida, Castro holds a bachelor’s of science in criminal justice from Florida International University. She is fluent in both writing and speaking Spanish, the coroner’s office said.
The administrative deputy coroner position was added as part of Johnson County’s $47 million budget for 2024. It pays a salary of $48,000 a year.
Castro moved to Johnson County last April and sought a job in the criminal justice field. When she saw a posting for the administrative deputy coroner position, she knew she had to apply.
“I thought it was perfect,” Castro said. “I didn’t have any coroner experience beforehand, so I studied and interviewed and I got the job.”
Having a full-time position has been a long time coming for the coroner’s office. Before adding the position, they were the only county agency that did not have a full-time employee, said Mike Pruitt, county coroner.
“We all have, whether the elected official or part-time deputy coroners, we all have full-time jobs doing other things. So we really needed someone full-time,” Pruitt said.
Among the things Castro will handle is fielding calls. The office gets calls from families, funeral homes and law firms, and they were not always in a position to handle those calls and promptly return them, Pruitt said.
This week Castro is doing field training with the Marion County Coroner’s Office. Since she started in February, she’s worked in the office, with pathologists doing autopsies and did trainings with the Greenwood Police Department and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, both Pruitt and Castro said.
“We’ve been trying to expose her to all angles of our business so that she has a better understanding … when she’s managing that coroner’s office,” Pruitt said.
Castro has also spent time with evidence technicians from Greenwood and Franklin Police, she said.
“I’ve been jumping around from place to place trying to just learn as much as I can,” Castro said.
Past coroners were able to handle the workload efficiently and quickly without a full-time employee, but with the county’s explosive growth, it is no longer possible, Pruitt said.
“I feel like I was in a position to basically build it up to this point where I could show that there was a need for someone full-time in the office,” he said. “Everyone understood that — [the county] council, our commissioners — everyone understood that need was there, and when you can show the need, it’s a lot easier to sell the idea.”
The position also lets the office upgrade the professional services it provides, particularly when the new building opens later this year. The primary focus will be managing the facility when it opens, fulfilling requests and managing documents, Pruitt said.
Construction of the joint Johnson County Coroner’s Office and Health Department building broke ground last July. Initially, it was expected to be completed by late 2024, but progress has been going so smoothly they’re now expected to move in this summer, he said.
“We could not be happier with the progress on this building,” Pruitt said.
The timeline has moved up because of several factors, including great weather, contractors’ “fantastic” work and smooth management of the project, he said.
For the coroner’s office, the space will have a morgue with the ability to store 10 decedents. Another upgrade is a private sally-port at the back of the building to pull in cars to privately transport decedents in and out of the office. There will also be two offices, a secure evidence room, a family meeting room and an autopsy suite with a viewing window.
The health department’s new office will be almost double its current space. Plans include about eight employee offices, two exam rooms and storage rooms for vaccines, medical supplies and records.
