Indiana county accused of storing bodies in a barn

ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) — In a county northeast of Indianapolis, our bodies are being saved within the freezer in of a barn with a gravel flooring.

Indiana authorities are leaning on the county authorities to wash issues up.

The state says staff don’t have working water or correct provides to conduct loss of life investigations. 

The Madison County Coroner’s Workplace is going through some critical fines from the Indiana Division of Labor, and the whistleblower advised I-team 8 that the penalties are simply the tip of the iceberg.

Katherine Callahan. a former Madison County coroner, advised I-Crew 8, “I’ll come again right here to the pole barn. I’ll carry the physique out, and I’ll draw my toxicology in that pole barn with none working water, with out sharps containers, with out something.”

Inside the pole barn on the finish of a avenue simply north of downtown Anderson is the Madison County Coroner’s Workplace freezer.

The barn doesn’t have a concrete flooring, sinks, or a correct examination desk.

Callahan is a nurse practitioner and, till not too long ago, was the deputy coroner in Madison County. She turned the county in to the Indiana Division of Labor for a quantity security violation.

Her breaking level got here a 12 months in the past when Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz was murdered. Callahan stated, “We go to take away the physique from the hearse, and we get it on the gravel flooring, and it’s so scorching, the household, the dignity guard are simply sweating, and they’re asking do we’ve got any air flow. I’m like that is one of the best we’ve got bought.”

Shahnavaz’s physique was carried throughout the gravel flooring and put right into a walk-in freezer.

Within the weeks following, Callahan raised her voice and tried to get the county commissioners to correctly fund the coroner’s facility. She says her issues fell on deaf ears.  

Callahan stated, “As harm as they had been, these officers did every little thing. I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I’ve been asking since we took workplace in January of 2021, and the one considering I get is distributed to my seat.”

The state Division of Labor discovered six critical violations, from no working water to how contaminated laundry and needles are disposed of.

If the county authorities’s leaders don’t right the violations, they may face a advantageous of $22,500.

I-team 8 requested Callahan if the specter of fines will get the county to form up,  

“That is what I used to be advised by a commissioner who’s now not in seat: They’re going to circle their wagons till they strangulate you, till they power you to faucet out. That’s what’s going to occur. That is solely going to worsen.”

Callahan owns and operates a medical observe, and, on Wednesday, she began as a deputy coroner in Marion County, which serves Indianapolis.