Wood County Coroner Mike St. Clair recently appeared before the Wood County Commission to present his annual coroner’s report. There were 1,175 deaths in Wood County in 2024 that the coroner’s office looked into. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — There were 1,175 deaths in Wood County in 2024 that were reported to the Wood County Coroner’s Office, according to Wood County Coroner Mike St. Clair.

St. Clair recently presented his annual coroner’s report to the Wood County Commission.

“There were 1,175 occurrences where people took their last breath in Wood County,” he said of people who physically passed away in Wood County in 2024.

The coroner’s office becomes involved and is mandated by law to investigate deaths resulting from suicides, homicides, motor vehicle crashes (MVCs), Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD), drownings, drugs, alcohol, fire, falls, ATV accidents and tractor/farm accidents.

Over the past year, the coroner’s office was called in to investigate 20 suicides, three homicides, 17 motor vehicle crash deaths (including one on an ATV), 44 heart disease deaths, 46 drug deaths, five drowning deaths, three alcohol deaths, three fire deaths, two deaths due to falls and two tractor/farm related deaths.

There were 19 deaths classified as “other” which could be an environmental death, like freezing, or someone who could have died of cancer while staying at a local hotel.

“We had one environmental death in Wood County last year where someone froze to death,” St. Clair said.

He reiterated that these numbers do not represent all of the deaths in Wood County, just the ones where the coroner’s office was required to look into them.

Last year, there were 1,148 county residents that died either in Wood County or somewhere else, St. Clair said.

Suicides were down to 20 from 21 the previous year, homicides remained the same at three, motor vehicle crash deaths were up by three from 14 in 2023 to 17 in 2024.

The ASCVD were at 44, although St. Clair said the number is actually higher, but these were the ones his office was involved in. There were five drowning deaths, which were up by three from the previous year. Drug deaths were down as there were 51 in 2023 compared to the 46 in 2024. There were two tractor/farm related deaths compared to none last year.

“Farm accidents are usually tragic because they happen in remote areas,” St. Clair said. “These people have been on tractors a thousand times and it only takes one accident (that results in a death).”

The number of drug deaths could also be higher as a drug overdose could have happened in Wood County, but the person might have been taken to an emergency room in Belpre or Marietta where they died. Also, if people involved in an accident are Lifeflighted to Columbus or Morgantown and died, those numbers are reflected where they died.

Commission President Blair Couch said there is a lot of stuff put out on social media that claims the number of deaths are higher in Wood County.

“Your number is low compared to what they said,” Couch said.

St. Clair said he has seen unsubstantiated claims posted on social media that the area had 25-55 people freezing to death recently.

“We didn’t,” he said. “Sadly, one is too many.”

Couch also pointed to unsubstantiated claims of more apparent deaths due to vaccines and other factors from people who say there is a large number of “excess deaths” in the area that are not being accounted for.

St. Clair said the population of Wood County is more elderly and that can result in more deaths.

“The number of deaths peak up because the population of Wood County is growing older,” he said. “It is just a reality.”

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said they keep track of local deaths by monitoring obituaries and other sources to be able to pull voter registrations that would no longer be valid.

“We do everything we can to make sure our records are correct,” he said.

St. Clair said he has seen posts on social media claiming there were over 300 suicides and over 400 drug deaths in Wood County last year.

“No, we didn’t,” he said “Twenty (suicides) are too many and 46 drug deaths are too many but we did not have 300 suicides and 400 drug deaths.”