EL PASO COUNTY — Measuring the best and worst days on the job for Dr. Leon Kelly, is nearly impossible.
As a forensic pathologist, his business is death; and it means meeting families during the worst moment of their lives.
“I always kind of joke that that compartmentalization is essentially the forensic pathologist superpower,” Kelly said.
With two years left in his current term, Kelly will leave his elected office early at the end of the year.
“It’s an, it's an end of an era and a stepping down and a new phase, I think, for both myself, um, as well as as well as the office,” Kelly said, “I think it’s time for me to kind of move on to some other things.”
The past few years have not come without many mass tragedies in the Pikes Peak region. From the pandemic, mass shootings, and the Return to Nature Funeral Home investigation.
“It is a bit of it was the best of times and the worst of times because those darkest moments were always the moments that we also kind of shined, which is weird to think. But the reality is that's what we do here,” Kelly said.
His plan is to teach at a Colorado medical school and perform autopsies as an independent contractor. El Paso County Commissioners will appoint his replacement.
“This job reminds you every day that not a single moment is guaranteed to you, anything can happen to anyone at any moment,” Kelly said.
In an office that’s not typically known for being publicly facing, Kelly has used his title in the past few years to shape policy, including the very laws dictating who could ultimately run to replace him.
Previously, Colorado law only required Coroner candidates to be 18, not a felon, with a high school diploma, and live in the county they’re running.
A new law passed in 2024 now requires candidates in larger counties, like El Paso, to be either a board-certified forensic pathologist or a certified death investigator.
“Having done this job for 17 years, the first day that you take it, something bad's going to happen, probably many bad things are going to happen, and we don't have time for you to figure it out. Um, for you to learn on the job, uh, you need to know what you're doing,” Kelly said.
Kelly said he’s accomplished the key goals he set out when he was first elected in 2018. Not only the policy changes, his goal was also to use the data and information collected from the Coroner’s office to help inform the community.
“We don't ever do an autopsy for the dead person, they're dead, they're gone. We do them because what we learn helps the living,” Kelly said.
Kelly said there will be times when family members do not want autopsies done, he said having those conversations with families about the impact of collecting this information is one of the most meaningful parts of his job.
“For me, the value of the work that we do and the time and the energy and the personal sacrifice and the trauma and the pain that you go through in this position, it isn't worth it unless you're going to do something with that information,” Kelly said.
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