MEMBERS
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pursue a different career than initially expected. She stepped away
from her interest in rehabilitation and chose pathology instead.
She and her husband were accepted to UofL’s residency program
and got to work.
“While it wasn’t my first choice, I always really enjoyed patholo-
gy,” she said. “I had trouble dealing with the dying patient in other
specialties but, with pathology, I didn’t put them there. Nothing that
I did or didn’t do allowed them to arrive at that stainless-steel table.”
In fact, Dr. Weakley-Jones explained, her job and findings could
only yield definitive results. “With my work, I can tell you why a
person is dead. I can tell if their medicine worked. I can tell a family
that a baby’s death maybe wasn’t their fault. I can come up with an
answer or help find the guy who committed a crime. There are a lot
of positives that come from a medical examiner’s work.”
If Dr. Weakley-Jones describes each autopsy as a new book to
read, her career has made her an avid reader. From 1981 to when
she retired as Assistant Chief Medical Examiner in 2010, hundreds
of cases came across her table each year. Every type of fatality you
could imagine, and some you likely couldn’t. She also helped manage
high profile cases, including the 27 people who died in the Carrollton
bus crash, and the eight victims of the Standard Gravure shooting.
“You have to separate yourself from the people they were. The
memorable ones will come back to you in nightmares,” she said
gravely. The Carrollton crash was one unfortunately memorable
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incident. For those unfamiliar, a youth group’s bus traveling home
from King’s Island was hit by a drunk driver. Twenty-four teens and
three adults lost their lives.
“You have to put yourself in that situation. It’s your job to picture
it, and that’s tough. As you’re doing the case, it isn’t too bad. Two
days later, when you open the newspaper and see what all these
kids looked like, that breaks your heart. That makes them human.”
Although her work is often morbid by definition, Dr. Weak-
ley-Jones is hardly doom and gloom herself. To brighten the days
and stay connected to her early interest in animals, she long ago
became a trainer and handler of search and recovery dogs. Enter
her coroner’s office these days and you may meet the newest edition
to the team, a dark brown and extremely friendly Belgian Malinois
named Lottie.
“I’ve had cadaver dogs for 20 something years. I wrote a state
grant and received federal funds to get the first. The grant wasn’t
too big, just enough for food and trips to the vet. It made sense
as I was going to get called to the scene of anything the dog finds
anyway,” she said.
When she began instructing recovery dogs, the training was sole-
ly on land. This quickly changed as dogs are capable of discovering
drowned victims too. Today, a large portion of Dr. Weakley-Jones’
training takes place in water as well. “Kentucky has a tremendous
amount of water, so the need was great for dogs who have that