The longtime elected coroner in Hinds County, Mississippi, who faced withering criticism last year for burying men in pauper's graves without notifying their families, is stepping down early.
Sharon Grisham-Stewart, a Democrat, announced Monday that she would retire Dec. 31, three years before the end of her current term. In a statement from her office first reported by local NBC affiliate WLBT, Grisham-Stewart said it was "time to start the next chapter of my life" after 25 years of being on call around the clock. She said she planned to spend more time with her family and explore "personal and professional opportunities."
Her statement did not address the pauper's grave scandal. She has not spoken publicly about it since NBC News began uncovering cases in which the county had buried men without giving their families an opportunity to claim their bodies. Some of those families had reported the men missing to local police.
The mother of one of those men, Jonathan Hankins, confronted Grisham-Stewart in February at the county's pauper's field. During that conversation, captured on a cellphone recording, Grisham-Stewart apologized to Gretchen Hankins and said, "I don't know how to find people."
Coverage of the burials stoked public outrage, prompting the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to enact a policy requiring coroner's office investigators to check missing persons registries, nearby police agencies and other public service offices, as well as social media, to find relatives of people whose bodies had gone unclaimed. Police in the city of Jackson adopted a policy outlining how officers must notify families when a relative has died. And the Justice Department stepped in, saying it would help authorities in Hinds County and Jackson improve their death notification procedures.
Grisham-Stewart was first elected as Hinds County coroner in 1999 and last won re-election in 2023. She did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
It is unclear who will run the coroner's office after she departs. Robert Graham, president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview that on Jan. 1 the board will appoint someone to serve as coroner until voters choose a permanent replacement in a special election to be held in November 2025. The winner will serve out the remainder of Grisham-Stewart's term, which lasts until the end of 2027.
Graham praised Grisham-Stewart and said the pauper's grave issue was not a concern.
"She's always been professional, dedicated and caring," Graham said. "We took for granted that she was going to be there forever. We were not anticipating her retirement but she will be really missed by the county."
NBC News' coverage of the botched death notifications in Hinds County began last fall, with the case of Dexter Wade, who was struck and killed by a police car in Jackson and buried in a pauper’s grave without anyone telling his mother. The articles continued with the cases of Marrio Moore and Hankins. Another four families later came forward to say that they, too, were not told about a loved one’s death and burial. Two of the families spotted their loved one’s names on a list of unclaimed bodies published by NBC News.
