‘Overwhelming’ flood exposes death inquest concerns, prompts bill

Project Summary:

This story is part of KXAN’s “A Hanging on Backbone Creek” Catalyst investigation, launched November 18, 2024. As Texas’ population grows, critics point to the need for more medical examiners in death investigations, instead of the state relying so heavily on its current process in most counties, where an elected justice of the peace — already assigned many court-related duties — also has the power to determine cause and manner of death with scant training and often without autopsies or forensic expertise. During our reporting, Texas lawmakers resumed efforts to modernize that antiquated system, as a nearly-forgotten mystery resurfaced with a fresh review of a young girl’s strangulation case.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Concerns surrounding Texas’ system for investigating deaths re-emerged this week at the State Capitol during a House hearing in response to recent fatal flooding.

Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, chair of the House Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding (Texas House of Representatives)

“Members, this bill is not a cure for disasters,” the chair of the Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, said as he laid out House Bill 1. “But with proper planning, we can prevent some of the devastation that we experienced during the July 4 flooding, Hurricane Harvey and last year’s Panhandle wildfires.”

The measure – among several flood-related items considered Tuesday as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session call – largely focuses on the state’s 900-plus justices of the peace, a handful of whom drew concerns last month surrounding flood victim backlogs and identification issues from the public and other leaders. Statewide, at least 135 people died in that weekend’s weather event. Of those, 117 were in Kerr County, where inundated justices relied on medical examiners from Bexar and Travis counties for necessary autopsies, along with teams from the University of North Texas Health Science Center for rapid DNA testing.

“We have great justices of the peace all over the state – frontline citizens, frontline elected officials doing a tremendous amount of work,” Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd told lawmakers. “I think in certain circumstances when we have an overwhelming event like this was there is always the need for additional resource understanding and capability.”

Kidd said local officials also tapped the Texas Department of State Health Services, funeral home partners and other mass fatality experts to help justices there identify victims quicker, make decisions on when to order autopsies and “make sure the right body was getting to the right family.”

“What this (bill) would do is to help institutionalize that, make it more formalized and bring them to the scene to help support on scene the work that needs to be done by the JPs,” he added.

While King said HB 1 will require “tweaking” before it moves forward in the legislative process, it currently aims to establish a framework for DSHS, in collaboration with TDEM, to develop a training program for justices on “managing mass fatality events,” including:

Decision-making protocols for autopsy referrals;
Standards for identifying and documenting bodies;
Collecting and reporting data regarding missing persons; and
Coordinating efforts with multiple governmental agencies during mass fatality events.

Justices who fail to take the training during the first year they are elected could be removed from office, according to the bill, which was left pending in committee.

“We don’t know what the next disaster is,” King said. “We don’t know what form it’s going to take or when it’s going to come. What we can do is mitigate the devastation that comes with the next disaster, and this is just one of the bills that is attempting to do that.”

‘Prepared for a mass casualty’

One member of the committee, Rep. Terry Wilson, R-Georgetown, questioned the need to standardize more forensic expertise on-site during a disaster.

Flooding damage in Kerrville, Texas, on July 5, 2025. (KXAN Photo/Frank Martinez)

“Maybe the state needs to look to requirements in terms of having a medical examiner present in preparation, in being prepared for a mass casualty because that can be extremely overwhelming to just four JPs,” Wilson said.

Texas has 254 counties. Medical examiners – doctors trained to conduct autopsies and determine cause of death – are used in just 14 counties for inquests. The state has one medical examiner district based around Tarrant County.

The remaining counties use justices of the peace to certify deaths. Most of those have three or four such positions each, though around 70 counties have only one. The state’s “Inquest Law,” from the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, gives justices of the peace authority to investigate deaths including those unattended, unnatural, in prison, caused by unlawful means and for children younger than six.

If a case needs further investigation, justices can send bodies for autopsies to counties with a medical examiner or use a local, private forensics firm. Each county doing so pays a fee for that service.

Speaking on HB 1 Tuesday, Angela Williams, a justice of the peace in Williamson County where three people died during last month’s flooding, said making decisions during largescale disasters can be even more daunting, if officials are unaccustomed to large caseloads. She estimated, in recent months, she and her three counterparts have collectively averaged 25 to 35 deaths each week in their growing area.

“(That) is not typical in many of our smaller counties operating under the JP system,” Williams said. “Recognizing the challenges this presents… we want to offer support – JPs with extensive experience and the capacity to manage high-volume inquest situations are willing to serve as a resource for our communities and our counties that need that additional support.”

Some members of the committee seemed interested in how experienced justices could be involved in the mass fatality rapid response teams also detailed in the bill. The collaborative idea would be to quickly deploy and connect local and state entities to help justices and other officials better respond to a disaster, including:

Tracking the chain-of-custody for a body and associated personal effects;
Storing in an easily retrievable manner documentation of an autopsy, identification and release of a body; and
Providing real-time status updates and notifications for close relatives of a victim of a mass fatality.

“I think it was obvious that (the justices) did the best they could, but there was a reality that they never expected something like this to happen,” said Rep. Wes Virdell, R-Brady, who represents Kerr County and sits on the committee. “I don’t want to say they weren’t prepared, but this was new territory for them and they were just trying to figure out their way through that.”

photos of people surrounded by flowers — The Wall of Hope in Kerrville depicts victims from the fatal flash flooding in Kerr County. (Nexstar Photo/Dylan McKim)

Kidd agreed justices across the state could play a part in the proposal but the July flooding proved the value of involving DSHS, the Texas Funeral Commission and medical examiners for expertise justices may not have.

“There were some questions the JPs … here had about – how do we do time of death if we don’t do an autopsy?” he said. “And (those entities) were able to come in and help them understand how the disaster response piece of that could work. That’s what this training would do on the front end to make sure that (justices) understood the scope of powers that are available to them.”

‘Beneficial to all counties’

Justices of the peace already receive some training on death inquests including when to order an autopsy. It is provided by the Texas Justice Court Training Center, which was established in 1971 and affiliated with Texas State University in San Marcos. The Center is funded by a grant from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and provides education for justices of the peace, constables and court personnel.

Justices are required to go through 80 hours upon election, and then 20 hours of additional training every year which covers duties of the office, civil and criminal trial procedures and death investigations. A representative of the Justices of the Peace and Constables Association of Texas – an industry advocacy and education organization – told lawmakers the initial training includes six hours on inquests, while subsequent training on the topic varies.

“(The inquest training) is somewhat limited, so continuing education – we do need additional training in this issue that we’re dealing with currently,” Williams said.

Training is offered both in-person and virtually. Those sessions focused on death investigations cover parts of the inquest process including initial investigation, communicating with families, working with a medical examiner’s office, completing death certificates and reporting. Additionally, TJCTC offers webinars and other workshops which cover a number of other topics — autopsies and body transportation, conversations with a medical examiner focused on cause and manner of death, challenges that may arise during a death investigation and interpreting toxicology reports.

Williams said, ideally, the mass casualty training addition would also be administered through TJCTC.

“It should be beneficial to all counties regardless of what your population size is,” she said. “Smaller counties may not handle that many inquests so it may not be up to that level of being able to process in a timely manner.

Still, in recent months, Williamson County hired death investigators to supplement the work done by Williams and her colleagues. And the county recently purchased property to establish a medical examiner’s office in the near future – eventually eliminating the need for justices there to perform inquests.

‘Still not enough’

KXAN has reported extensively on challenges with Texas’ approach to investigating death – a system that is unique in the U.S. and dates back two centuries. Unlike coroners in other states who focus solely on inquests, Texas’ justices of the peace have additional duties. As judges, they rule on small claims cases, oversee low-level misdemeanors and handle marriages.

Justices also have no required prerequisite medical experience. Medical examiner office advocates have argued these government outlets – led by appointed medical doctors – provide a higher level of expertise and public service.

Currently, Texas counties are only statutorily required to have medical examiner offices when their population hits 2.5 million. SB 1370, a failed measure last spring in the regular legislative session, aimed to decrease the benchmark to 1 million.

Though they aren’t required, a handful of counties in Texas with populations much lower than 2.5 million, or even 1 million, have opted for medical examiner offices.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, told KXAN at the time he would like to see an interim charge to look at how Texas can lure more medical examiners to the state. TV shows have popularized medical examiners’ work, but “there’s still not enough” to fill demand.

“We are paying, at the county level, some of the highest salaries in the entirety of county government to medical examiners,” Anchia said. “We just need more people who are specialized in this work, and creating an incentive program makes total sense.”

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The idea for the interim charge came after Anchia fielded questions from other House members about the availability of physicians with forensic science training who could fill the state’s potential need for medical examiners. Experts have said there is a shortage of such doctors actively practicing, with the National Association of Medical Examiners recently telling KXAN the number was around 750 nationwide.

KXAN Senior Investigative Producer David Barer, Investigative Photojournalist Richie Bowes, Investigative Reporter Arezow Doost, Investigative Reporter Matt Grant, Investigative Producer Dalton Huey and Digital Director Kate Winkle contributed to this report.

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