YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Coroner Dr. David Kennedy said his office will continue to send bodies to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies until it finds another forensic pathologist to conduct them, hopefully this summer.

The previous forensic pathologist, Dr. Tanner Bartholow, left at the end of July for a job as director of adult autopsy services for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He held the job in Mahoning County for about a year.

UPMC was able to provide Bartolow with better pay and other benefits, Kennedy said.

“They are in high demand,” he said of forensic pathologists, adding that his budget will allow the county to pay about $200,000 per year, which is the “going rate” for “starting pay” for forensic pathologists.

The best chances for his office hiring another forensic pathologist will be this summer, when students complete their training and are ready to begin work, Kennedy said.

The county pays less right now sending bodies to Cuyahoga County for autopsies compared to what it would cost to have a forensic pathologist handle them here, but sending them out “is not ideal,” Kennedy said.

“I’d like to have a person here, but there are certain realities we have to deal with.” he said. “We’ll find one eventually, but it takes time.”

He said his office typically has 100 to 125 autopsies per year, but tries not to send bodies for autopsy if it is “not absolutely necessary.” He said the number of autopsies the second half of the year may have been down a little from the first half of the year.

Mahoning County pays Cuyahoga County $1,475 per autopsy, plus $175 per transport.

In Mahoning County, autopsies are performed in some suspected overdose-death cases. But in many others, coroner’s investigators carry out an external examination on the body at the Mahoning County morgue and have toxicology and other testing done.

The number of overdose death cases dropped a bit in 2019 compared to 2018, according to preliminary numbers the coroner’s office released Monday. There were 103 overdose deaths in 2019 compared to 115 in 2018. The 2019 number could change somewhat depending on what toxicology results show on some cases from late in the year, Octavious Jones, a coroner’s investigator, said.