Well-known El Paso County coroner announces he’ll be stepping down
Most of the boxes for the possible scenarios and a few surprises of what a forensic pathologist could encounter on the job have been checked off for El Paso County Coroner and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Leon Kelly.
“When you think of all the things that have happened over the last decade, there wasn’t a lot left on a forensic pathologist’s career bingo card for me to deal with,” he said.
From an alarming trend of El Paso County reaching unprecedented teen suicides, to a global pandemic and opioid overdose crisis that created record-setting deaths, and capping off with last year’s gruesome discovery of 189 mishandled decaying bodies at a funeral home in Penrose, Kelly’s work that’s already difficult by nature has been a 24/7/365 undertaking.
Add management of a few tragic mass shootings and appearances as a forensic pathology consultant on several national true-crime broadcast programs, and Kelly has seen and done almost all of it.
Dr. Leon Kelly fills out a report while autopsy technician Amanda Kuzma works at the El Paso County Coroner’s Office in December 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
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His commitment has been driven by passion, however, “When it requires that much time and effort, certainly there’s got to be sacrifices in other parts of your life,” he said. Most concerning for him as been limited time with his kids, who are now ages 13 and 15.
So, the affable Kelly, who by the choice of voters has led the state’s largest and busiest coroner’s office for the past six years and has been its medical examiner for nearly 17 years, is stepping down, county officials are announcing on Wednesday.
His last day will be Dec. 31.
There are two years left in his publicly elected term, which the El Paso Board of County Commissioners will fill by soliciting applications and selecting a new coroner for the role until 2026.
“It’s hard, yet at the same time I’m happy to be moving on and am excited about the next phase,” Kelly said.
Kelly joined the office as deputy chief medical examiner in 2008 and first won the coroner’s seat in 2018. He and his staff of about 30 provide autopsy, toxicology and investigative services on people in 22 counties who have died suddenly, unexpectedly or by violent means.
He’s also testified in hundreds of criminal trials across the region as an expert in the fields of forensic pathology and strangulation.
But Kelly’s not leaving the office skeleton yet.
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El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly co-founded and co-hosts the quarterly Six Feet Under Horror Film Festival at RoadHouse Cinemas.
The horror movie aficionado and co-founder of the Six Feet Under Horror Film Festival still will have a chance to wear his skull-patterned shoes, as he plans to return to what he loves most about his profession: being a consultant for coroners’ offices in the area, conducting autopsies and trying to decipher what happened and teaching.
“To have the opportunity to step away from the more bureaucratic and political aspects of the job and go back to being a regular doctor and teacher is going to be wonderful and afford a much better work/life balance,” he said.
The majority of county coroners’ offices in Colorado are not led by a forensic pathologist, a medical doctor who’s also trained in forensic sciences including toxicology, firearms examination, blood and trace evidence, and DNA technology.
So, they could use Kelly’s help, and starting in January he’ll be able to set his own schedule doing private-practice contract work as well as being a professor.
For more than a decade he’s taught courses at the Colorado Springs campus of the University of Colorado on investigating injury and death. But Kelly said those opportunities declined with his hectic schedule.
Now, he’s accepted a faculty teaching position at a Colorado medical school, instructing first- and second-year medical students.
“I’ve benefitted immensely from incredible mentors and professors throughout my life, and I’d like to give back and help young medical students with the difficult and exciting time of their life and help shape the impact they’re going to have on the world,” Kelly said.
As he looks to educating younger generations, there’s no doubt 48-year-old Kelly’s contributions to the community have been powerful.
In 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic began, he served in an emergency capacity as the deputy medical director of El Paso County Public Health, helping lead the community’s response during tense, unchartered times.
El Paso County Coroner and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Leon Kelly, left, and Autopsy Technician Hannah Brunner examine a corpse in December 2020, at the coroner’s office in Colorado Springs. (Gazette file photo)
Kelly became a central leader in figuring out how to address the county’s teen suicide clusters that began in 2014 and lasted for several years.
He’s been instrumental in the El Paso County Youth Suicide Prevention Workgroup, which the county formed in 2015 to help prevent teen suicide by supporting mental well-being, and the El Paso County Youth Suicide Prevention Collaborative, part of the Colorado-National Collaborative that works to reduce suicide.
Kelly also co-founded the El Paso County Child Fatality Review Team, which examines deaths of children, looks for trends and makes recommendations for prevention measures.
“I’ve spent more than a decade trying to highlight the important role the coroner plays in public health and safety,” he said.
At its annual fundraiser on Oct. 10, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, in Colorado Springs honored Kelly with the organization’s “Advocate of the Year” award for serving on its board since 2018, including as board president since 2019.
“He’s an inspirational and pretty selfless leader,” said Lori Jarvis, executive director of NAMI. “When you look at the work he does every day and how challenging it is on numerous levels, it’s got to be an emotionally taxing job, and that’s one of the reasons he was interested in working with NAMI — something that was upstream and preventive.”
Kelly said without the satisfaction of being involved with a preventive approach that focuses on keeping people from ending up in the coroner’s office, he would not have been able to sustain his momentum.
“It would be really sad if all you did was deal with tragedy without having faith that something positive would come of it,” he said.
The pinnacle came earlier this year, when the advocacy of Kelly and other elected officials succeeded, as Colorado lawmakers passed House Bill 24-1100. For the first time in Colorado history, the new law sets minimum requirements for people who can serve as coroner in each county.
“It was on my bucket list as the last piece of what I wanted to get done, so when I did step away the professionalism and quality of the office would never be in question — regardless of politics,” he said.
Jarvis describes Kelly as “a forensic pathologist with emotional intelligence,” a quality which she believes is rare.
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“He’s a scientist based on the way his mind works, but his heart and his intellect are also very engaged on the more emotional part of the world, which is just as important to him,” she said.
In his resignation letter to county commissioners, Kelly said the role of helping people during what’s often the most tragic and painful moments of their lives has been challenging and rewarding.
“While this work has been both sobering and at times overwhelming, it is also a profound privilege to offer families answers and help our community better understand the circumstances of their losses,” he wrote.
“There is arguably no profession that more constantly reminds us of how precious our time on Earth is than that of a coroner.”
Well-known El Paso County coroner announces he’ll be stepping down
Most of the boxes for the possible scenarios and a few surprises of what a forensic pathologist could encounter on the job have been checked off for El Paso County Coroner and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Leon Kelly.
“When you think of all the things that have happened over the last decade, there wasn’t a lot left on a forensic pathologist’s career bingo card for me to deal with,” he said.
From an alarming trend of El Paso County reaching unprecedented teen suicides, to a global pandemic and opioid overdose crisis that created record-setting deaths, and capping off with last year’s gruesome discovery of 189 mishandled decaying bodies at a funeral home in Penrose, Kelly’s work that’s already difficult by nature has been a 24/7/365 undertaking.
Add management of a few tragic mass shootings and appearances as a forensic pathology consultant on several national true-crime broadcast programs, and Kelly has seen and done almost all of it.
His commitment has been driven by passion, however, “When it requires that much time and effort, certainly there’s got to be sacrifices in other parts of your life,” he said. Most concerning for him as been limited time with his kids, who are now ages 13 and 15.
So, the affable Kelly, who by the choice of voters has led the state’s largest and busiest coroner’s office for the past six years and has been its medical examiner for nearly 17 years, is stepping down, county officials are announcing on Wednesday.
His last day will be Dec. 31.
There are two years left in his publicly elected term, which the El Paso Board of County Commissioners will fill by soliciting applications and selecting a new coroner for the role until 2026.
“It’s hard, yet at the same time I’m happy to be moving on and am excited about the next phase,” Kelly said.
Kelly joined the office as deputy chief medical examiner in 2008 and first won the coroner’s seat in 2018. He and his staff of about 30 provide autopsy, toxicology and investigative services on people in 22 counties who have died suddenly, unexpectedly or by violent means.
He’s also testified in hundreds of criminal trials across the region as an expert in the fields of forensic pathology and strangulation.
But Kelly’s not leaving the office skeleton yet.
The horror movie aficionado and co-founder of the Six Feet Under Horror Film Festival still will have a chance to wear his skull-patterned shoes, as he plans to return to what he loves most about his profession: being a consultant for coroners’ offices in the area, conducting autopsies and trying to decipher what happened and teaching.
“To have the opportunity to step away from the more bureaucratic and political aspects of the job and go back to being a regular doctor and teacher is going to be wonderful and afford a much better work/life balance,” he said.
The majority of county coroners’ offices in Colorado are not led by a forensic pathologist, a medical doctor who’s also trained in forensic sciences including toxicology, firearms examination, blood and trace evidence, and DNA technology.
So, they could use Kelly’s help, and starting in January he’ll be able to set his own schedule doing private-practice contract work as well as being a professor.
For more than a decade he’s taught courses at the Colorado Springs campus of the University of Colorado on investigating injury and death. But Kelly said those opportunities declined with his hectic schedule.
Now, he’s accepted a faculty teaching position at a Colorado medical school, instructing first- and second-year medical students.
“I’ve benefitted immensely from incredible mentors and professors throughout my life, and I’d like to give back and help young medical students with the difficult and exciting time of their life and help shape the impact they’re going to have on the world,” Kelly said.
As he looks to educating younger generations, there’s no doubt 48-year-old Kelly’s contributions to the community have been powerful.
In 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic began, he served in an emergency capacity as the deputy medical director of El Paso County Public Health, helping lead the community’s response during tense, unchartered times.
Kelly became a central leader in figuring out how to address the county’s teen suicide clusters that began in 2014 and lasted for several years.
He’s been instrumental in the El Paso County Youth Suicide Prevention Workgroup, which the county formed in 2015 to help prevent teen suicide by supporting mental well-being, and the El Paso County Youth Suicide Prevention Collaborative, part of the Colorado-National Collaborative that works to reduce suicide.
Kelly also co-founded the El Paso County Child Fatality Review Team, which examines deaths of children, looks for trends and makes recommendations for prevention measures.
“I’ve spent more than a decade trying to highlight the important role the coroner plays in public health and safety,” he said.
At its annual fundraiser on Oct. 10, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, in Colorado Springs honored Kelly with the organization’s “Advocate of the Year” award for serving on its board since 2018, including as board president since 2019.
“He’s an inspirational and pretty selfless leader,” said Lori Jarvis, executive director of NAMI. “When you look at the work he does every day and how challenging it is on numerous levels, it’s got to be an emotionally taxing job, and that’s one of the reasons he was interested in working with NAMI — something that was upstream and preventive.”
Kelly said without the satisfaction of being involved with a preventive approach that focuses on keeping people from ending up in the coroner’s office, he would not have been able to sustain his momentum.
“It would be really sad if all you did was deal with tragedy without having faith that something positive would come of it,” he said.
The pinnacle came earlier this year, when the advocacy of Kelly and other elected officials succeeded, as Colorado lawmakers passed House Bill 24-1100. For the first time in Colorado history, the new law sets minimum requirements for people who can serve as coroner in each county.
“It was on my bucket list as the last piece of what I wanted to get done, so when I did step away the professionalism and quality of the office would never be in question — regardless of politics,” he said.
Jarvis describes Kelly as “a forensic pathologist with emotional intelligence,” a quality which she believes is rare.
“He’s a scientist based on the way his mind works, but his heart and his intellect are also very engaged on the more emotional part of the world, which is just as important to him,” she said.
In his resignation letter to county commissioners, Kelly said the role of helping people during what’s often the most tragic and painful moments of their lives has been challenging and rewarding.
“While this work has been both sobering and at times overwhelming, it is also a profound privilege to offer families answers and help our community better understand the circumstances of their losses,” he wrote.
“There is arguably no profession that more constantly reminds us of how precious our time on Earth is than that of a coroner.”
