Upgrades planned for Chief Medical Examiner offices

CT Mirror – Friday, February 20, 2026
By Dave Altimari

The state could spend more than $60 million to expand and upgrade the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and eliminate a space crunch that has risked its accreditation and led to office storing bodies awaiting autopsy in refrigerated containers behind the Farmington building.

“Our autopsy numbers have literally doubled in the last 10 years or so, and we don’t have enough storage space for bodies,” Chief Medical Examiner James Gill said. “We have four autopsy tables, where an office our size like New Mexico, with a population of 2 million, they’ve got 12 autopsy tables.”

The state approved $28 million in 2021 for the project, Gill said. Gov. Ned Lamont proposed $34.6 million for the expansion this year.

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