Six months after Justin O’Neal’s death, no autopsy report

By the Outer Banks Voice

State cites “staff vacancies and high turnover” in Medical Examiner’s office

On Feb. 14, the body of Justin O’Neal, 39, was found in a marsh in Rodanthe following a lengthy search. There was considerable speculation at the time about the cause of death. The Dare County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement a week after the body was found, indicating that while foul play wasn’t suspected, anyone with information was invited to contact them.

In early April, a member of O’Neal’s family spoke to the Voice about the status of the case and reported that the family had hired a private investigator.

This week, six months after O’Neal’s body was found, the Dare County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that nothing has emerged to change its view that foul play was not involved in his death. O’Neal’s family has told the Voice that there are no new developments to share in the case.

But there is still a missing piece. A final autopsy report on O’Neal from the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to be released. When asked about the reasons for such a delay, Hannah Jones, a press assistant with the NC Department of Health and Human Services, cited several reasons in an email, including significant problems with staffing in Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.

“NCDHHS has ongoing concerns about staff vacancies and high turnover at OCME [Office of the Chief Medical Examiner] which have a negative impact on the system’s ability to maintain high-quality services for North Carolinians…We’ve experienced a 26% increase in cases from 2019 to 2023 — a rate which was undoubtedly influenced by the 69% increase we’ve seen in suspected drug overdose cases. A backlog in OCME creates challenges for law enforcement, attorneys our public health partners and for the families and communities left behind.”

“OCME has a 20% vacancy rate [15 positions] for permanent state positions, including four of 13 pathologist positions,” Jones added. “National workload guidelines for a forensic pathologist suggest they perform 250 autopsy equivalents or less each year. Those same standards call for 90% of autopsy reports to be completed within 90 days. NC’s forensic pathologists are not able to meet these standards…This fact has driven the average time to complete or close a case to greater than 200 days. Other factors which negatively impact our average case completion time are limited staff and time spent away from the office testifying. “