May 23, 2002 2 min read

Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly reported no homicides and four suicides in Fayette County during February and March combined. Reilly also reported three deaths during those months resulting from drug overdoses. Two other accidental deaths, one from a fall with compression, one from hypothermia, were also reported during that span.

He reported two fatalities from vehicle accidents, one from a single vehicle accident, the other from a two-vehicle accident in his report.

Reilly listed 21 natural deaths in February and March, 18 from heart disease and other heart-related conditions and three from hypovolemic, hemmorhagic shock.

During the two months, Reilly’s office conducted 11 autopsies, for Sue Verbeten, Peter Sciullo Jr., William Loveridge, Lee VanSickle, Charles Stafford, Lana Crawford, John Locke Sr., Jeffrey Dunaway, Andrea Strizak, Johanna Rice and Gerald Kremposky.

Reilly also held five inquests during the two-month period, into the deaths of Dustin Kenney, Jonathan Michael King, William Martelli, Duane Bodkin and Jeffrey and Mary Lou Adams.

The coroner’s office holds inquests monthly.

The process employs six jurors, plus, generally, two alternates who hear the facts surrounding all unnatural deaths and determine the cause and manner of each death. Reilly is the only coroner in the state to hold inquests regularly.

The total cost for the inquests was $215.86.

Regionally, the office investigated 12 deaths in Uniontown, three each in Point Marion and Wharton Township, two in Connellsville and one each in Masontown, Perryopolis, Vanderbilt Borough and German, Jefferson, Georges, Redstone, Nicholson, South Union, North Union, Upper Tyrone and Menallen townships.

In a special note, the office investigated another 50 deaths in January that were natural in cause. Those certificates were referred to the family physician for the purpose of accuracy and completeness. Because the deaths were natural, the coroner’s office did not investigate them further.