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It’s rather chilling: The Hilo Benioff Medical Center (HBMC) morgue, built 40 years ago to hold an expected maximum of 16 bodies, has been chronically over capacity because of its use by Hawaii County to store bodies being held for coroner’s inquest cases and criminal investigations.
Bodies currently brought to the hospital morgue by the Hawaii Police Department include people who died in their homes, in an accident or in a traffic incident, in addition to those who may be victims of a crime. HBMC has asked that the police find another location for these bodies by September, because the morgue’s aged mechanical cooling system is being strained and requires frequent fixes.
The long-term solution is to build a county morgue, and funding for this is being considered.
