Senior Deputy Coroner

Tiffany Williams

Senior Deputy Coroner, Tiffany Williams

By: Diana Denk                                                              

Tiffany Williams was named the 2009 “Investigator of the Year,” by the California State Coroner’s Association.

Tiffany remarked, “I don’t know why they picked me! It should have been ‘Orange County Sheriff’s Department Investigators of the Year’.”

She explained that the Coroner’s investigators work as teams and each uses his or her individual skills to help the team on a case. If it were not for the rest of her co-workers, she wouldn’t have been nominated for this award. She is merely a member of an excellent team. After one investigator’s shift ends another investigator picks up and works it through. They’re all there to support each other and what they do.

When a Coroner’s case comes in, the first task is to identify the deceased. Then the next of kin is notified.

One step that is always difficult is knocking on someone’s door at all hours of the night to inform him or her that a loved one has passed away. This is William’s least favorite part of the job.

“You never become numb to it,” she explained. “Sometimes you just sit there with them...” she said.

At the same time the relative is grieving, it’s also important for the Coroner to collect any information that would help determine different aspects of the case. Sometimes the cause of death may be apparent, but not the manner. For example, was it suicide or murder? An autopsy may be conducted to discover some of these facts.

Williams likes to think of her position as the “jack of all trades, master of none!”

She means that a Coroner is involved and works with many other departments such as CSI, Toxicology, doctors, etc. So, along the way you tend to pick up little pieces of information from each area that you hold on to. If anything, it educates you on who you need to go to when stumped by a situation.

At this point, it’s good time to stop and ask: “How did Williams decide to be a Coroner? Was it something she always wanted to be as a child?”

The answer is no.

Williams’ educational background is in Forensic Anthropology.

She joined OCSD in 1999 as a Reserve Deputy attached to the Coroner’s Division, and in February of 2001, there was a rotation available in the Coroner’s Department.

 “I fell into the position, and then I fell in love with it,” she said.  Being a forensic anthropologist, she is a very valuable member of the team, and gets to work on many cases that are outside of the normal scope of a Coroner’s investigator’s responsibility.  She is often assigned to recovery work, where she says bones may be scattered, like in a plane crash, or fire. From the bones, she can determine if they are modern or ancient, age, sex, and the approximate cause of death. She also has the experience to decide if she’s working with human, or non-human bones rather quickly.

Some police officers brought  in bones for her; she picked up a rather large bone, and used it as an example, laughing, “Now where would you put this bone in the human body?” Obviously, it was the bone of a large animal, but you can never be too sure in checking. 

A frustrating portion of her job consists of the John and Jane Doe’s that are out there.

“You think if you only work harder, you’ll get the answer you’re looking for...,” she said. 

It doesn’t always work that way. As a Mother, she finds it hard to believe that these people have nobody looking for them. Once a year, they go over the Doe cases to see if they missed anything that can determine their identity, or find any other clues to solve the case.

Testifying in court is also another nerve-racking part of the job. She admits that what happens for real in the courtroom is not as exciting as what you see on television or the movies. Williams also says that she prefers to stay out of the range of the media. All information is given to the OCSD Public Affairs Director, who can then disseminate it to the press.

The OCSD Coroner’s Division also teaches a two week Coroner Academy, where Williams teaches the forensic anthropology section. During the class, the students actually investigate a realistic re-enactment of a crime scene, using what they learned to determine all the factors of a Coroner’s case. Most helpful is the new ever so realistic mannequin, they nicknamed “Manny,” that was created by those from the hit show “Nip Tuck.”

Also, a part of training for the students is a little dirt graveyard located in the parking lot of the Coroner’s building. Oddly out of place, in the corner of the parking lot, this dirt pit contains buried animals, such as pigs, coyotes, etc. Williams lights up the area as she steps over the areas where the specific animals are buried. She even reaches down quickly to determine if what she just found was a bone or just a stick. She goes on to say that the students come out here and act as if it’s an actual site, flagging what they find, and then ultimately determining what they’ve just uncovered. The bones are then used in reference to future findings.

If you’re ever wondering- the pig has bones with high resemblance to human bones.

Clearly, William’s has a love for fieldwork. Before the Sheriff’s Department she was a part of many archeological digs in areas of the world such as South Africa, Spain, and Uganda. Her favorite type of site is that of old battlefields, however today she is much too busy to re-create old war scenes.

What she’s never too busy for is to dedicate time to county teams, one being that of the “Child Death Review Team”. This team reviews the deaths of children every six years to make sure that society did everything it could to prevent this child’s death. Did they receive proper medical care? Were the parents well educated on how to raise their child? Were the police or social services every involved?

With regard to training Coroners, she mentions that officer safety is an important thing to be aware of. You never know what can be on a body, so you want to take precaution when handling one. They may have a needle in their pocket, and many times you are dealing with biohazard issues. Also, when recovering a body, you want to be safe in the way you go about it; a body may be located at the bottom of a steep ravine, so you want to use caution in these types of situations, as well.

One of William’s favorite scenarios when recovering a body in rugged terrain is to take a helicopter that can drop her right at the scene. She loves helicopter rides, and is always looking for a way to request its service.

Williams is an individual who is so passionate and knowledgeable in her area of expertise. She loves her job. Loves her team. Most importantly, she knows never to bring her job home with her. As hard as it is at times, she knows it’s a “job,” and one that she does well.