Jellison: Chalfin to go down as “best coroner this county has seen”
Hamilton County Coroner John Chalfin is set to retire on Dec. 31 when the second of his two terms expires. He was first hired on as a part-time deputy for the Coroner’s Office in 2008 and won the first of his two elections in 2014. Coroners are limited to two four-year terms in the State of Indiana.
Chalfin
“It’s been an honor to serve the people of Hamilton County and help them in some of their darkest hours,” Chalfin said.
Chalfin and his team investigate nearly a quarter of the county’s deaths. They are responsible for tending to suspicious and unattended deaths – primarily homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths.
“We owe it to people to treat their loved ones with dignity,” Chalfin said. “Anything we can do to provide them with more comfort and decency, we want to do.”
During his tenure as Coroner, he has done his best to keep pace with the county’s growth. The department’s caseload has increased 200 percent in the past decade, from 200 cases a year to over 600 cases a year. He said his proudest accomplishment is building a new morgue in 2018.
“If we hadn’t built the morgue when we did, we would have been sunk, especially when COVID hit,” he said. “I’m also proud of our new office space, our increased manpower, and the fact that we now have vehicles that allow us to do our own transport.”
Chalfin will be 79 in March, but he has no plans to slow down. Once he completes his wife’s “honey do list,” he plans to either attend auctioneering school or apply to law school.
“I certainly won’t miss being on call 24/7, but I still want to do something that allows me to give back,” Chalfin added. “I feel like as long as I’m alive, it’s my God-bound duty to do something to make the world a better place.”
Jeff Jellison, the current chief deputy at the Coroner’s Office, will take over as Coroner on Jan. 1, 2023. He has spent the past six years working as a part-time deputy coroner with Chalfin.
“John is a tremendous mentor,” Jellison said. “He carries a ton of wisdom and has been a father figure to many of us. He will easily go down as the best coroner this county has seen.”