This annual report is a collection of data describing the work of the employees of the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office; although it reflects the work completed by our office in the prior year, what this report does not make evident is the dedication of the employees of this office. The staff of the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office strives to serve Cobb County and provide its citizens with accurate and timely death investigation while showing compassion for family and friends of our patients. The employees who served in our office in the past year are:

Administrative Personnel

• Michael Gerhard, D‐ABMDI, Operations Manager
• Becky Youngblood, Administrative Assistant

Forensic Investigators

• Allison Gaines, MBS, D‐ABMDI
• Martin Jackson, D‐ABMDI
• Cara Rolfe, PhD, D‐ABMDI
• Holly Rymer, D‐ABMDI
• Temperance Stoddard, MS, D‐ABMDI

Forensic Technicians

• Lisa Bailey, D‐ABMDI
• Jada Henderson

Medical Examiners

• Christopher Gulledge, MD, MS, Chief Medical Examiner
• Cassie Boggs, MD, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner
• Abraham Philip, MD, Medical Examiner

Without these individuals, Cobb County’s Medical Examiner Office would not have been able to serve the county during 2017, and the needs of the citizens and agencies who depend on the Medical Examiner’s Office would not have been met. For the dedication to your work and for regularly exceeding the expectations of your respective positions to meet the needs of the office, thank you.

A special thank you must be extended to Blossom Pugh, who joined the office in February of 2018, and Cara Rolfe, PhD as they collated much of the data in this report by hand, and without them, this annual report would not have been possible.

The role of a Medical Examiner’s Office is to determine the cause and manner of deaths that occur within its jurisdiction. Although this information is most often thought of as applying to the individual whose death is being investigated, analysis of the entirety of the data collected and produced by the Medical Examiner’s Office can also be of benefit to the community when it is used by the public health, public safety, and planning departments serving the community.

This report is a compilation of the data for 2017 in hopes of such service. Thus “this is the place where death delights to help the living.” –Giovanni Morgagni.

Cassie Boggs, MD
Deputy Chief Medical Examiner

Read the full annual report