COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A partnership that helps Kootenai County with autopsies has come to an end after the Spokane County Medical Examiner abruptly terminated its contract with the Kootenai County Coroner.
For 30 years, Kootenai County would send people who died over to Spokane County when it needed autopsies done — autopsies that it can’t do itself because it doesn’t have a forensic pathologist.
Each year, the Spokane County Medical Examiner conducts around 70 autopsies for Kootenai County. Sometimes those people were victims of a crime, and an autopsy helps in the investigation…