Medical Examiner; Missoula, Montana

Overview

The main role of the Montana Medical Examiner’s Office, a section in the Montana Department of Justice’s Forensic Science Division, is to support the county coroners in the state of Montana with autopsies, consultation, and education.

While each of the 56 Montana county coroner’s offices are the primary agency responsible for death investigation in their respective county, handling all scene investigation and direct communication regarding the death with families, law enforcement, and other interested parties, the medical examiners can assume jurisdiction on any death if necessary.

The Forensic Science Division and Montana Medical Examiner’s Office provide support for the entire state through two locations:
Missoula, MT (main office) and Billings, MT (satellite office).

When fully staffed, the medical examiner’s office has one chief medical examiner (located in Billings) and three deputy medical examiners (two in Missoula and one in Billings).

Salary: $291,325 annually

Comp time earned, which can be used as vacation time, accrued at a rate of one hour per night of call (i.e., around 180 additional hours each year), and one hour for each hour worked over 40 hours per week, which, in general, allows for flexibility of day-to-day scheduling

Relocation expense of $5,000 to $10,000

Supplemental salary for work performed at the Billings office if necessary, and for performance of contracted hospital autopsies (around 0-4 per year)

State of Montana benefits including paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, health, dental, and vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and choice of two retirement plans (“defined benefit” or “defined contribution”).

Other benefits: reimbursement of licensure and continuing educational requirements, including one paid conference per year, and qualification for student loan forgiveness.

Missoula, a town of around 80,000 people, with 120,000 in the metro area, is home to the University of Montana, which is associated with Grizzly football and numerous concerts and other events.

Missoula has numerous restaurants, four golf courses, a fantastic farmer’s market during the summer days, and the Snowbowl ski area, which is just on the outskirts of town. It is located along the Clark Fork River in Western Montana at the convergence of five mountain ranges, sometimes called “the hub of five valleys.” Hiking to the “M” on Mt. Sentinel at the edge of the University of Montana campus provides a beautiful view of the area as well as good exercise.

Missoula is bike friendly and has a very active downtown area. Within an easy driving distance (about 1 hour) there are two other ski hills and numerous hiking opportunities, including all along the Bitterroot Valley just south of town. Within 2 hours driving distance are Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake, which is one of the largest naturally occurring bodies of freshwater in the western United States, and one of the cleanest lakes in the world.

The Deputy Medical Examiner will perform fewer than the NAME (National Association of Medical Examiners) allowed number of autopsies per year (for reference, in 2024, the Chief Medical Examiner performed 299 autopsies, and the three Deputy Medical Examiners averaged 180 autopsies each; however, caseloads can fluctuate).

With rare exceptions at the discretion of the pathologist, autopsies are not performed on weekends or holidays. In addition to autopsies, the Deputy Medical Examiner will provide consultation and education to the coroners, assist with continued accreditation efforts as necessary, and present autopsy findings in court, both criminal court and coroner inquests.

Assisting the medical examiners are four experienced autopsy assistants (two in each office, one full and one part-time) and an ABMDI certified coroner liaison, who handles much daily communication with the coroners and assists with their education.

The office recently implemented MDILog for a shared death investigation case management system with the coroners.

A medical degree from an accredited school and a license to practice medicine in…