Mr. Burch is a 1977 Graduate of Fitzgerald High School and a 1983 Graduate of the Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service.  He has worked as a licensed funeral director/embalmer for over 22 years.  He was first elected to office in 1997.

Olin Fletcher
Deputy Coroner

Duties of this Department:

To investigate deaths that occur in Ben Hill County:

• As a result of violence

• Suicide or casualty

• Suddenly when in apparent good health

• When unattended by a physician

• In any suspicious or unusual manner

• After birth, but before seven years of age if the death is unexpected or unexplained

• As a result of an execution carried out pursuant to the death penalty

• When an inmate of a state hospital, or a state, county, or city penal institution dies.

The coroner's major role in the investigation is to establish the cause and manner of death.  The cause is the medical reason the person dies and the manner is whether they died as a result of a homicide, suicide, accident, natural causes, or in an undetermined fashion.