Tracy Wilson is running for the Kosciusko County coroner position on her many years of experience.
Friday, she filled out the official paperwork at the office of the clerk of the circuit court.
She previously ran for coroner in a 2022 Republican caucus against Tyler Huffer after then-coroner Tony Ciriello resigned to serve on the county council. Huffer won the caucus and he has filed for re-election. Wilson served as a deputy coroner under Ciriello and previously under her husband, Mike Wilson.
“I want to continue taking care of the people in their time of need,” Wilson said. “When I lost to Mr. Huffer in the caucus, a change in the office brought a change in the office’s personnel.”
She said she had been a deputy coroner or helping in the coroner’s office since 2005 and she wants to continue to serve.
“I feel that our community deserves to have things done properly, correctly and with empathy and compassion,” Wilson said.
She recently celebrated 20 years as a paramedic and 25 years in EMS.
“I’ve always, at some point, been medically involved with patients and the deceased. So since 2005 I’ve been in the coroner’s office or affiliated with the coroner’s office,” she stated.
She is now doing community paramedicine for Parkview.
Wilson said she had quite a bit of backing during the 2022 caucus.
“Dr. Wagner, who was our forensic pathologist, does all of our autopsies, wrote a letter of recommendation. I’ve talked to a lot of the other funeral homes in the area, they support me running. (State Sen.) Ryan Mishler supports me running. So, I’ve had quite a few people ask me to run,” she said.
If elected this year, she can’t say what, if any changes, she would make because she doesn’t know what changes Huffer has made to the office.
“I know, before we left out of the coroner’s office, Tony had allowed me to implement the 525 Take Back program on prescription drugs. I’m not sure if that is still implemented, so it will be a wait and see,” Wilson said.
As Kosciusko County has a drug overdose problem like about every other county in the country, she said she wants to educate people about narcotics and make sure that when someone dies from an overdose the narcotics are cleaned out of the home.
“That’s one of the things we always did. We made sure we took those with us and disposed of them rather than leaving them in the house and leaving it up to the family,” Wilson said.
Working in the coroner’s office over the years, she said she’s had to deal with consultants from other countries to try to get deceased people returned to their home country in a timely fashion for funeral services; dealt with homicides, suicides and people killed in traffic accidents; children, infants and “just about every scenario you can think of.”
Wilson said, “I just want to get back to showing the care and compassion to these people during one of their worst times and guiding them through that.”