1 murder, 6 ODs and 2 mystery urns. Franklin counts its dead

Franklin County had just one homicide in 2017, a drive-by Pasco shooting involving a 17-year-old suspect.

The murder of Jorge Rodriguez, 51, is one of 214 deaths investigated last year by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office.

He died three and a half weeks after he was shot in the head as he drove his SUV on Lewis Street on July 4. His accused shooter, Pedro Cadenas, goes to trial in April on charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and unlawful gun possession.

Coroner Dan Blasdel and his team reviewed all but 20 of the county’s deaths. Those died in the presence of a doctor.

Adjusting for population growth, the county’s death rate was unchanged compared to 2016.

Last year, officials investigated 21 fatal accidents, six suicides and five unknowns — including two urns that turned up in donations to the Pasco Goodwill.

By comparison there were 77 natural deaths, 14 accidents, eight suicides, two homicides and two “undetermined” deaths the year before.

For a second year, there were no reported assisted suicides under Washington’s Death With Dignity Act.

Blasdel said 2017 is the first year his office received urns — one with human remains and one empty.

Blasdel said the urns were apparently donated to Goodwill, possibly after a garage or storage unit was cleared out.

The one with cremated remains had an identification disc that helped officials return it to relatives. The other was empty and still sits on a shelf in Blasdel’s office in the Franklin County Courthouse.

“This is a really nice urn, and I’m sure it’s quite expensive,” he said, adding he still hopes to find the family it belongs to.

The other undermined deaths included one case of Native American bones and two unfounded reports of clandestine gravesites.

The leading cause of the fatal accidents were car wrecks (7), followed by 6 overdoses, two drownings, two suffocations and an electrocution.

The accidents included a baby who died after getting tangled in a baby monitor cord and a teen who drowned after receiving a low voltage electrical shock while swimming in the Columbia River near a pump house with faulty wiring.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected in an additional death, pending toxicology results.

Of the six overdoses, five involved opioids, sometimes in combination with other legal and illegal substances, said Blasdel’s report.

A year earlier, opioids were a factor in eight poisoning or drug-related deaths.

Middle-aged victims, ages 26 to 44, accounted last year for nine of the investigated deaths, including four overdoses, two car wrecks, two suicides and one accidental asphyxiation.

There were two suicides each in the 11 to 17 age group and in the 65 and older group.

Car crashes claimed victims across all age ranges 11 and older.

The leading cause of natural death was heart-related (69) followed by neurological (39), cancer (38), pulmonary (17) and other (16).

Blasdel said he was struck by the relatively low death rate, which he attributes to Franklin County’s mean age of 29.

There just aren’t as many age-related deaths as in older counties such as neighboring Walla Walla, with its median age of almost 37.

Benton County hasn’t released its 2017 statistics. Results for prior years are available online.

This story was originally published February 8, 2018 at 6:10 PM with the headline "1 murder, 6 ODs and 2 mystery urns. Franklin counts its dead."