NAZARETH, PA - They’ve been dying to get a new forensic center. And now, Northampton County is breaking ground on an 11-million-dollar facility in Upper Nazareth Township.
“It’s a house of horrors,” says Northampton County Executive, Lamont McClure, “And in all seriousness, we need to preserve the chain of custody of evidence for criminal cases and to make sure that evidence is secure so it can’t come under attack and frankly, the coroner has been doing tremendous work trying to do that but now we are we’re going to help him out with this new state of the art forensic center.”
The new near 28 thousand square foot, single story center will house two autopsy rooms, a refrigerated cooler to house the dead, scanning devices and modern equipment to check bodies and determine causes of death. Add in a digital forensics areas that will be fully equipped to investigate computer, cellphone, tablets and other digital equipment crimes that is scheduled to be completed by September of 2020.
“We do have very specialized equipment that provides the environments for the pathologists and the autopsy assistant people to provide the appropriate procedures working with the cadaver,” explains W2A Design Group Chief Architect, Glenn Lichtenwalner.
At the moment, the county relies on Gracedale nursing home and local hospitals to store bodies. This new facility will change that. And unlike a recent Lehigh-Northampton County 911 Communications center, the county did not consider combining forces with their neighbors on this new venture.
We need our coroner to be available in Northampton County as opposed to having to constantly commute to Lehigh County or some middle location,” McClure tells PBS39 News Tonight reporter, K.C. Lopez, “So, no. It never occurred to us. We needed our own.”
But ten minutes from where the new site will sit is where Zachary Lysek, the county coroner currently spends his 9 to 5. It’s also where mice, a basement hole, collapsing wooden floor, and chipping lead-based paint accompany him at work.
“As you can see, the structure is deteriorating to the point where it’s beyond repair and it would be so costly to make this building compliant with standards,” Lysek explains, “I think it’s really incumbent upon us to work with families to help them through a very difficult time, I also feel that having the appropriate environment to meet with families and to store evidence and you know process evidence is necessary and for that reason, it’s really important that the county address these issues, and they have.”
Lysek says, the new forensic center will replace his current office; a\ converted farmhouse at Louise W. Moore Park with limited space for important documents and evidence. Bottom line is, it can no longer safely support staff nor evidence.
“My secretary’s office is a dirt floor so it’s a wooden floor over top of dirt and it’s not insulted so that’s a problem in the winter with heating. As you can see, we also have a problem with rodents, our office is in the middle of a big open space field area,” he explains, “Because of the conditions of the walls, there’s some difficulties with rodents. You can see by the foundation it’s deteriorating and some of the rocks have actually come loose so that’s also a concern for the structural integrity of this building.”
The coroner tells me the structural and safety concerns of his office have been brought to the attention of previous county executives. And reports show this has been an issue since as early as 1996. Now 23 years later, it looks like this working condition nightmare is finally being laid to rest.
Coroner's Office Beyond Repair, County Breaks Ground on New Forensics Center
by
Published on
•
Comments
The Northampton County Coroner's Office