ROBERTSDALE, Ala. (WKRG) — The number of cases the Baldwin County Coroner’s Office must investigate continues to increase. According to the office, cases have doubled since 2010. And one official said the issue calls for a coroner’s building expansion. 

Brian Pierce, Baldwin County’s coroner, said even staff members do not have room to work on a daily.

“Tourism is at an all-time high as well for Baldwin County, that just elevates the populations in a small center and any time we have more people in a smaller space things are going to happen, unfortunately sometimes those things are bad,” Pierce said.

Baldwin County has an average of 50 cases a month and Pierce says there is just not enough room to house people especially with population and tourism rising each year.

“Our cooler, morgue space only holds about 15 people, for a county this size and our functional population of around a half a million people during the summer time makes it quite challenging,” Pierce said.

Recently, Pierce met with some architects who designed a new forensics building that will be able to house double the amount of people the current office can.

“The new facility would give us opportunity to expand our forensic services, maybe future autopsies for the county, they are all done in Mobile at USA hospital, but we need to be prepared for the future because it’s coming whether we want it to or not,” Pierce said.

According to the coroner’s office, coroner cases have gone from 353 in 2010 to 663 in 2021, he said that as Baldwin County continues to grow, coroner cases will increase as well.

Pierce said there is no estimate yet as to when this facility will be built.