CHICAGO (AP) - The Cook County medical examiner is retiring as part of a shake-up at the office that comes months after the staff drew criticism for allowing bodies to pile up in the morgue cooler.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday announced that Dr. Nancy Jones is retiring at the end of July.
Preckwinkle says executive officer Kimberly Jackson was asked to resign, four other employees were fired and seven more disciplined as part of the overhaul.
Earlier this year, Preckwinkle's aides found 363 bodies stored in a cooler designed to hold 300.
Jones blamed the overcrowding on a spike in deaths during the year-end holidays and delays in pickups by funeral homes and in receiving coffins to hold the remains of the indigent.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Associated Press