Bodies are constantly rolling into the Fresno County coroner's office.
Doctor David Hadden says it's been one of the busiest summers he can remember during his 30-year career.
“The only good news is we have a facility that adapts itself well to a high work load,” Hadden said.
Yes, they do have a brand new state of the art facility, but due to budget cuts they don't have enough people to fully staff it.
“This morning for a two hour period there was nobody here to answer the phone. One deputy was making a death notification, another deputy was assisting in an autopsy, both pathologists are doing autopsies and the morgue attendant is doing an autopsy,” Hadden said.
Taking a look at some of the headlines from this past week gives a good example as to why things are so hectic here.
Tuesday night in northwest Fresno, a man's body was found wrapped in material lying in the backyard of a vacant home.
Wednesday morning, police found a man stabbed to death on Kearney Boulevard in southwest Fresno.
A couple hours later, Fresno police officers shot and killed an armed man at Millbrook and Browning.
In the afternoon, a farmer found a body in an orchard outside Parlier.
Then a woman drowned in a swimming pool in Central Fresno.
And finally Wednesday night, in a bizarre case out of Kingsburg, a woman allegedly shot and killed her husband as part of a staged home invasion.
That's six bodies headed to the morgue in a 24 hour period.
And those are just the ones reported by CBS47.
“It's been very stressful and everybody looks tired, but everybody is sucking it up and doing what they need to do. I've got an incredibly good staff right now,” Hadden said.
Doctor Hadden is now looking to add to his staff. He needs to hire two more deputy coroners.
If you're interested in applying, the following link will give you more information. http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/DepartmentPage.aspx?id=4822
