The Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for El Paso County is resigning before his term is up. Dr. Leon Kelly was last elected in 2022 and has two more years in his current term. He'd already decided not to run for re-election.
Kelly has been with the El Paso County Coroner's Office for nearly 17 years, first as deputy chief medical examiner before voters elected him to lead the office.
In a resignation letter to the county board of commissioners, Kelly said the time is right for him to focus on other priorities.
"As I assess my professional and personal life, goals achieved and those for the future, and priorities in how I want to spend my time as I enter the next season of my life and career, it is with careful consideration that I will retire and resign," he wrote.
Kelly cites his work during the pandemic, confronting the opioid and fentanyl epidemic, and dealing with multiple mass shootings as among the challenges he's faced, calling it "sobering and, at times, overwhelming" but "also a profound privilege to offer families answers and help our community better understand the circumstances of these losses."
Kelly was also involved in "one of the largest recoveries of human remains in Colorado history," when he was called to assist after around 190 decomposing bodies were found in a Penrose funeral home.
The El Paso County Coroner's Office is the busiest in the state and routinely contracts and conducts autopsies for counties throughout Southern Colorado. In 2023, the office conducted 1,563 autopsies, including 993 in El Paso County.
Kelly’s last day is December 31.
