Fremont County Coroner credits local ‘prevention partnerships’ for recent decreases in suicides, vehicular deaths

(Lander, WY) – Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie credited local prevention initiatives for contributing to a recent decrease in the number of suicides and motor vehicle deaths recorded in Fremont County each year.

So far in 2025, Ivie said there have been no reported suicides in Fremont County – a statistic that was repeated from 2024.

“Our prevention partnerships appear to have a positive effect, as this is the second year in a row where the first quarter has had no completed suicides,” Ivie told the Fremont County Commission during a regular meeting Tuesday.

Similarly, she pointed out that only two vehicular deaths have been recorded in Fremont County during the first quarter of 2025 – up slightly from 2024, when one vehicular death was recorded during the first quarter of the year, but markedly lower than in the first quarter of 2020, when 12 vehicular deaths were recorded in Fremont County.

Ivie said those numbers show that “our DUI task force (has) been successful.”

“I think it’s working,” she said. “Those prevention partnerships are working very well, and we’ll continue to participate in those as an office.”

Drugs, alcohol

Deaths related to drugs and alcohol are “trending downward” too, Ivie said, reporting that only 30 percent of the cases her agency has taken on so far this year have been drug- or alcohol-related – down “significantly” from the first quarter of 2024, when 42 percent of coroner cases were related to drugs or alcohol.

The rate of non-natural deaths involving drugs and alcohol has fallen “significantly” this year as well, Ivie said – down from 84 percent (11 out of 13) during the first quarter of 2024, to 66 percent (four out of six) during the first quarter of 2025.

Total cases

During the first quarter of 2025, Ivie said her agency has taken on 33 cases – down from 38 during the same timeframe last year.

This year’s case total so far includes four accidental deaths (down from nine during the same timeframe last year), one homicide (down from four during the same timeframe last year), and one undetermined death (up from zero during the same timeframe last year).

This year’s caseload also includes one death related to fentanyl, two related to methamphetamine, two related to oxycodone, and five related to alcohol – which “continues to be the primary substance of abuse” in Fremont County, Ivie said.

Autopsies

The coroner’s office has conducted five autopsies for Fremont County so far this year, Ivie said while 12 autopsies have been conducted for contractual counties – including six for Natrona County and one each for Sublette, Carbon, Lincoln, Teton, Uinta and Weston counties.

For the fiscal year, Ivie said Fremont County has collected $63,446 in payments for 31 contractual autopsies, and another $8,300 for additional contractual autopsies has been “billed” and “is awaiting payment.”

After paying Fremont County’s forensic pathologist, Ivie estimated that the coroner’s office will have brought in almost $17,000 in additional revenue from contractual autopsies this fiscal year.

“That (is) enough to cover our operating, infection control, and general office supplies line items,” Ivie said. 

Fremont County charges a base price of $1,925 for contractual autopsies, Ivie said, and each procedure costs $1,500, so “we make about $425 off of each contractual case.”

For more information, call the Fremont County Coroner’s Office at (307) 856-7150.