Also, community helps coroner identify body found in carwash
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On Sat., July 6, 2024, at approximately 6:25 p.m., Community Howard Regional Health EMS, Greentown First Responders, and the Howard County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the Greentown Fire Station, 224 N. Meridian St., for an unconscious/unresponsive male with CPR in progress. Responders were advised by dispatch that the subject had been transported from the Howard County Fairgrounds by co-workers to the fire station where CPR was initiated.
Upon the arrival of EMS from Community Howard Regional Health, advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) was provided, and a helicopter was requested to respond to the scene. After 30 minutes of ACLS and continued medical assessment, the emergency department physician was consulted, and the subject was pronounced deceased at 7:16 p.m. The Howard County Coroner’s Office was requested to respond to the scene.
Upon arrival of the coroner’s office investigators, the decedent was identified as food vendor company employee Jose Julian Garcia Oropeza, age 36, from Venezuela. Oropeza was working at the fairgrounds setting up for the Howard County 4-H Fair that began on Monday.
According to the initial investigation by the coroner’s office, Oropeza and others were working on setting up one of the food vendors when they were electrically shocked, and Oropeza went unconscious and was unresponsive. The co-workers immediately transported him to the Greentown Fire Station where help was summoned and CPR started.
An autopsy was conducted on Mon., July 8, at the Howard County Coroner’s Office. The initial findings are consistent with electrocution, but the final cause and manner of death are pending the completion of the investigation and forensic lab results.
The case remains under investigation by the Howard County Coroner’s Office, Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA), and the Howard County Sheriff’s Office. Anyone with additional information may call the Howard County Coroner’s Office, 765-456-1186 or the Sheriff’s Office at 765-457-1105.
Body found in carwash identified
On Fri., July 5, 2024, at approximately 9:20 p.m., the coroner’s office was called to the scene reference a death investigation of a John Doe that had been found at the carwash in the 2300 block of West Sycamore Street in Kokomo.
An autopsy was conducted Mon., July 8, at the Howard County Coroner’s Office in Kokomo. The cause of death is pending lab work and toxicology. Foul play is not suspected. The office’s thoughts and prayers are with this family during this difficult time.
The coroner’s office initially asked the community for assistance in identifying the body, described as a white male with brownish-gray colored short crewcut hair with a short beard and mustache. He was clothed only in a pair of black and yellow colored swim trunks, a black colored backpack, and a pair of gray and blue tennis shoes.
Positive identification has since been made by the family of the decedent. The name is not being released at this time pending notification of the legal next of kin. The Howard County Coroner’s Office thanks the community for its concern and its willingness to help identify the person involved in this tragedy.