County considers change with coroner
Last week’s Steele County Board workshop session raised questions about the county coroner’s office operation and if the coroner, Dr. Kellyanna Moore, is hard to reach regarding information on death investigations.
During the workshop session, Steele County Sheriff’s Investigator Kari Woltman and County Administrator Renae Fry commented about difficulties in contacting Moore. Woltman told commissioners that for many of the deaths in the county requiring the coroner’s involvement there was a slow or no response from the coroner’s office for inquiries about investigations. She said she has been in investigations for seven years and had seen Moore only at one murder-suicide and that her second-in-command usually answers death investigation calls.
Fry added that she had reached out to Moore and she had not responded. “This is not a reflection on her abilities,” Fry said, but she does not have an organization behind her. In addition to serving as the Steele County coroner, she also works as a physician at the prison in Waseca.
In an email to the Steele County Times, Moore took issue with the comments made at the work session.
“In regard to Administrator Fry’s statement that she had reached out to me regarding concerns without receiving a response, I communicate frequently with County Administration, primarily through Rebecca Kubicek, administrative assistant to County Administrator Renae Fry,” Moore wrote.
Moore went on to say, “In reviewing those communications, I found more than 40 email exchanges during the past six months, none of which raised the concerns that were later discussed publicly. I asked Ms. Fry to identify the communication in which those concerns had been raised with me, and no such communication was identified in her response. For that reason, I was surprised to hear it characterized publicly as though County Administration had been unable to reach me.”
The Information in the board packet for the workshop session included a memo from the Public Safety and Health Committee about a June meeting that recommended the county have further discussions of alternatives to an appointed coroner at a board work session.
The committee report went on to say the current contract with Moore expires in December 2026 and that this is an appropriate time to revisit the option of contracting with a medical examiner’s office instead of continuing with a county coroner structure.
It went on to say that two medical examiner’s offices currently work with surrounding communities, and both offer services at a per capita rate. The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office (MMEO) is located in Anoka County and has a 2026 per capita rate of $2.71. Based on the county’s population of 37,434 the estimated cost for Steele County would have been $101,446.
Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner Services (SMRME) is located in Olmsted County with a 2026 per capita rate of $3.46 bringing the Steele County total to $129,522.
The report went on that the benefits of contracting with a regional medical examiner office is predictable, stable annual costs along with guaranteed access to board-certified medical examiner testimony without additional fees.
Moore’s current contract includes the coroner’s salary of $49,194.96. In addition to this cost, the county incurs other expenses including autopsies, at approximately $1,800 per case, death investigator fees, software expenses, body bags, training and transport expenses. The county’s total coroner-related costs were approximately $93,000 in 2025 and projected to be approximately $91,000 for 2026.
During the discussion, County Attorney Robert Jarrett said that Steele County is one of three counties with an independent coroner. He added he would like to explore if the current coroner is not meeting the contract.
If the board decides to go with a regional office the memo said they recommend MMEO.