Dr. Leon Kelly, El Paso County Coroner

He is the El Paso County Coroner and chief Medical Examiner. He has been with the coroner's office since 2008. He was deputy chief until 2018 when he was elected to his current post. He was re-elected in 2022.

Background

• He has a bachelor's of science in biology from Indiana University, a medical degree from Indiana University School of Medical, and four years of training in anatomic and clinical pathology in Colorado Springs and a one year fellowship in pathology at the University of Texas in Dallas. He is certified in anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology. He is a member of the National Association of Medical Examiners, the College of American Pathologists, and the American Society of Clinical Pathology.
• He has published papers and posters on various types of death in a forensic setting.
• He has qualified as an expert in forensic pathology, strangulation, and forensics sciences. He has testifies in many courts in Colorado, South Dakota, California, Ohio, and Texas.
• Dr. Kelly is qualified as an expert in forensic pathology.
• Pathology is a field of medicine defined as the study of disease or injury; forensic pathology deals specifically with sudden, unexpected, or unnatural deaths.
• In January 2020 he was the elected coroner and chief medical examiner for El Paso County.
• When Kelly first got involved they were not sure if it was Gannon Stauch who had been discovered in Florida.
• Kelly assisted in getting the remains to El Paso County to help identify him.
• There was advanced decomposition. For identification you generally need to look at the teeth or through DNA. As the body breaks down the cells that have DNA begin to dissolve and it becomes difficult to use traditional techniques to get enough of that material.
• El Paso received a femur to try and develop a DNA profile; they took the femur - one of the last things to be exposed to the environment - saw it in half and extract blood and bone marrow.
• The DNA was positively identified as Gannon Stauch.

Cross Examination

• He has done hundreds if not thousands of autopsies in his career.
• When someone is deceased the body will start smelling; the bacteria that live in our body begin to break down our body and release gas; it depends on temperature, humidity, and a lot of other factors.
• Breakdown of the body after death is almost entirely based on temperature. Saying about 70 degrees inside a home it would begin within 24 and 48 hours, after about 5 days the smell would be quite obvious and strong. In a very hot environment they can begin decomposing within just a few hours.
• By the smell he means someone in a closed car or a home would be noticeable; to him he can't tell if it's overpowering because he is used to it but if you're not used to dealing with it every day it would be tough.

Redirect

• Despite his ability to withstand the odor if a person freezes a body the smell will be delayed as decomposition will essentially be stopped.
• It can take several days for bodies to thaw to the point that you can even autopsy them.
• Gannon was reported missing in late January of 2020. If the body had been left outside it would have been frozen if left overnight.
• If the body was kept in an enclosed container like a suitcase with blankets in it the odor would be limited because of insulation and the closed environment.
• The El Paso County Sheriff's Office and Medical Examiner wrap bodies in body bags to contain smells, fluids, and evidence.

Juror questions:

• What impact does humidity have on decomposition?: Humidity, the moisture in the air, would result in decomposition happening at a slightly increased rate. Probably not dramatically. It does alter dramatically the type of decomposition that happens. In a state like FL with a lot of moisture the body tends to decompose in a way that's very wet and goes through a process called adipocere that causes them to smell even worse than in other conditions. In other states, the bodies start out wet but it quickly turns to mummification which is a leathering of the body that reduces smell. It's really only after a few weeks that there is any difference.