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Hamilton County DA’s team digs through years of unprocessed autopsy evidence

By Zack Peterson May 4, 2016 6 min read

Photo Gallery

Inside the county auditors digging through years of unprocessed evidence

Attorney General Neal Pinkston looks through a box of bullets stored as evidence that were recently removed from the Medical Examiners office.

Hamilton County senior auditor Harry Mansfield, left, looks at evidence photos as audit clerk Johnetta Truss works looking at photographic negatives from cold cases.

Johnetta Truss holds 35mm negatives that were evidence as Hamilton County auditors Chris McCollough, left, and Roger Kincer work at a table looking at thousands of evidence files recently removed from the Medical Examiners office.

Attorney General Neal Pinkston, top center, stands over senior Hamilton County Auditor Harry Mansfield as he looks at cold case photos.

Attorney General Neal Pinkston, left, and Audit Manager Jenneth Randall peer into cold case envelopes recently removed from the Medical Examiners office.

Attorney General Neal Pinkston pulled one bullet as evidence from a 1979 shooting. Most of the bullets are loose inside yellow envelopes.

Attorney General Neal Pinkston holds a box full of bullets from shootings as he and Hamilton County auditors go through thousands of evidence files on Tuesday from the Medical Examiners office.

Hamilton County auditors go through thousands of cold case evidence files on Tuesday in the Newell Tower. Clockwise from left are: Chris McCollough, Roger Kincer, Harry Mansfield and Johnetta Truss.

Attorney General Neal Pinkston, and a room full of Hamilton County auditors, go through thousands of evidence files recently removed from the Medical Examiners office.

Hamilton County auditors Roger Kincer, left, and Harry Mansfield go through thousands of evidence files recently removed from the Medical Examiners office.

If there's one case in there impacted by this, then it's worth it.

Down Seventh Street in Chattanooga, near the Hamilton County Courthouse, on the eighth floor of the Newell Tower, around the corner and inside a conference room, underneath a surveillance system, and surrounded by file cabinets, microfilm and envelopes, a team of auditors sits at a table.

The six-person group has reported there since April 21 – at 2:18 p.m., to be exact – after a prosecutor accompanied a vehicle full of evidence. The entire ride was documented on videotape by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

In this room, everyone must sign in and out. At least two cameras peer down from the plaster ceiling. And a handful of people have keys to the room, which is roughly the size of a storage unit.

Why?