Former Dallas County chief medical examiner looks back on nearly four decades of service

From KERA News:

Days before his last as Dallas County’s chief medical examiner, Jeffrey Barnard still walks into the wide, blue and slate-tiled autopsy room like it’s his first day.

It was more like his thirteen thousand, six hundredth day.

He’s an accomplished 69-year-old now — not a 32-year old rookie.

His chin is still raised, and he smiles as he gives a tour of the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, where he was director until last Friday, Nov. 1.

“You’re ultimately responsible for everything,” he said. “Even when you’re not really responsible. I think we’ve got maybe 160 employees. That’s a lot. And so if something goes wrong, they call you, they don’t call anybody else.”

Global epidemics, cold cases, mass shootings and more than 10,000 autopsies during his 37 years in Dallas County’s medical examiner office constantly kept his mind running.

“If all I did were autopsies that would, frankly, with this many years experience, would be the easy job,” he said. “When you’re doing autopsies and you’re overseeing everybody and you’re dealing with the budget and you’re dealing with the crime lab and the problems that are inherent in there, yeah, you’re busy all the time.”

Among the state’s most capable and respected medical examiners, Barnard was put in charge of the Texas Forensic Science Commission by then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2011.

Barnard’s hunches, autopsy findings, attention to patterns and details have kept innocent people out of prison — and solved cases others couldn’t.

Deaths with no resolution haunt him, like in some suicides.

That’s why forensic genealogy and DNA advances keep him excited.

They offer a chance at justice for victims who had no other advocates, like sex workers who were raped and killed.

“Those cases, I really think the families have given up and they figure nobody is ever gonna solve them therefore they don’t have any voice,” Barnard said. “Neither does the victim.”

Mary Kelly’s accused killer, for example, is on trial now because of forensic developments.

“I was able to go back once we had DNA and work that case,” Barnard said.

He testified in that trial this week.

Among many, one solved cold case was especially rewarding.

“I get a call from the family thanking me for never giving up on the case,” he said. “Cause most of the time nobody ever pays any attention.”

Barnard’s work and testimony has also helped convict the guilty.

He discovered at least eight suspected serial killers — like Charles Albright, the “Eyeball Killer,” in 1991, and Billy Chemirmir, who was convicted in 2022 for smothering elderly women to death.

In 2020 Barnard tried his best to protect his staff from the then-unknown dangers of COVID-19.

“It was one of those situations where, you just didn’t know the impact,” he said. “You didn’t know how infectious it was. I had to come up with some different types of protective things for the office, personal protective equipment.

“I saw some things we didn’t do in the morgue before. I made them wear stuff that they weren’t happy about it, but I was trying to protect them.”

His office worked nearly 5,000 autopsies that year.

Time to walk away

Decades of deaths don’t upset Barnard too much.

His wife, Terry, said early in his career the death of a little boy who came in wearing Superman pajamas reminded him of their own son, who was about the same age as the boy.

Fishing in Broken Bow keep away unsettling thoughts. Enjoying a Luke Combs concert with his daughter, or a second reading of The Belgariad fantasy series also help.

One murder does bother him: that of his deputy medical examiner Beth Frost.

Talking about her, he shifts. Ties and unties his shoelace. Tangles and untangles paper clips.

“It’s not coincidental, really, that the [retirement] timing is just a few days before the anniversary, again, of her death.” Dr. Barnard said.

Frost was shot and killed in her office by her soon-to-be ex husband just before he shot and killed himself on Election Day 2022.

“That was when I started considering retirement,” Barnard said. “I was ready to go then. Yeah. She was kind of like a daughter to me.”

He told County Administrator Darryl Martin and Commissioner John Wiley Price that he was ready to retire.

“I said, ‘I could see that this would be the time to just walk away,'” Barnard said. “And they’re like, ‘You can’t do it.’ I said, ‘I know I cannot do it. But mentally, I can see why people would call it quits.’

“If you’re the captain of the ship, you got to stay with it, which I did. But then a year later, I gave my one year notice.”

That time, Price accepted his decision.

“I said, ‘Fine time to leave me, Lucille! You can’t just get up and leave,'” he said.

Price became commissioner two years before Dr. Barnard joined the county. He teased that Barnard backed out of their close relationship.

“I told him, ‘You were supposed to hang with me. We were supposed to be the last two gunslingers going into the sunset. So you bailed on me. OK.'”

Barnard will continue leading the Texas Forensic Science Commission through next fall.

Meanwhile, he and Terry plan to travel the country and explore Europe, collecting clues about their ancestors.

Honoring the dead is important to Barnard.

His first post-retirement holiday was Dia de los Muertos — part birthday celebration for his daughter, Erin McCann, but mostly a time to toast their family ancestors and loved ones.

Retired Dallas County Chief Medical Examiner Jeffrey Barnard and his successor and former deputy chief Jessica Dwyer hug at his retirement party Oct. 30, 2024. Marina Trahan Martinez / KERA News

“Dad’s always been really interested in genealogy and our family story,” she said. “So any way that we could kind of bring these pictures out and talk about the people that led us to where we are.
It does feel particularly fitting that, you know, the Day of the Dead is coming right after his illustrious career, telling the stories of the voiceless. So I feel it feels right this year.”

Barnard’s deputy chief, Jessica Dwyer, was named the new chief medical examiner and director — the first woman to hold the position.

She has worked with Barnard since 2017.

Dwyer said the county department needs little improvement, except maybe a woman’s touch.

“I’m getting handed a very well-oiled machine, so I have no plans to turn things on their head,” she said. “If anything, it’s just to continue the progress that we’ve made.

“He’s done so much to support us as medical examiners, and this office in general. The county has always been very responsive to our needs, and I think it is truly because of the connections that he’s made with them.”

Barnard’s friend and now successor spoke at the retirement party staff threw for him.

Dwyer noted that his last day happened to be All Saints Day.

“Consider this a celebration of your sainthood,” she said. “I’m also sure your first order of business on your last day with us is to attend mass and pray for us all.

“I find it even more fitting, however, that my first day as your successor, Dr. Barnard, falls on All Souls Day — a day that commemorates the faithful departed. After all, it is the faithful departed that we serve.”

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