9 Decomposed Bodies, Not Enough Freezers Brings Stench to Morgue

KANE COUNTY, IL — Nine dead bodies in advanced stages of decomposition have been brought to the Kane County Coroner's building in recent weeks, bringing a horrible stench that employees have been trying to block out with candles and deodorizing equipment and that has drawn complaints from those in neighboring buildings, the Daily Herald reports. The morgue, located at 719 S. Batavia Avenue in Geneva, does not have enough space to properly store the bodies. Two of the bodies were put in the freezer and Coroner Rob Russell set up a deal with DuPage County to store some of the bodies but the rest went into coolers.

"The smells are unbelievable," Don Biggs, Kane County's executive director of facilities, told the Daily Herald. "I can tell you from experiencing what I only experienced for 10 minutes over there that I wouldn't want to work in that building.

"If the coroner's employees were working for me, I would not let them in that building. That's how bad it is. It's disgusting."

Russell has been asking for a new morgue since 2012 but county board Chairman Chris Lauzen does not agree with that vision, which has kept the coroner's office upgrades at the bottom of the county's capital project's list for years, according to the Daily Herald. The current building is not suited for a morgue and county officials are suggesting moving and building a new morgue. But there are no immediate plans with how to deal with the stench, according to the article.

This isn't the first major issue at the morgue. Back in 2013, bodies began decaying after a 20-year-old morgue freezer — purchased from Jimmy John's — went out over the Thanksgiving holiday. A broken compressor in the freezer caused bodies to "liquefy" and the stench overpowered staff responding to a death call, the coroner said at the time. Wearing hazmat suits, employees had to move the bodies to another freezer, and the broken freezer needed to be repaired to the tune of $3,500. The following June, the morgue was forced to temporarily move out of the Geneva facility to a facility in DuPage County due to mold in the freezer, which was discovered when technicians were repairing the freezer that broke down over Thanksgiving. The mold was determined to be non-toxic, and the Batavia Avenue facility reopened eight months later, in early 2015.

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