Russell Nelson is a self-professed “bone guy.”
After a “squandered youth” wrangling horses for commercial outfitters and graduating with a degree in music, he eventually found a calling that brought him all around the world.
He brought his kids to assignments in Mongolia, pouring over human remains for archaeological projects in the country.
The forensic anthropologist sorted skeletons in South America, Italy and Guam, too, but ultimately returned to Jackson Hole, where his family has called home for the past five generations.
As deputy coroner for 12 years, he has helped manage high-profile cases, such as that of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old traveler whose 2021 death Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue ruled a homicide. He has also tended to quieter passings, like that of his childhood best friend. When somebody here shows up at the morgue, the deputy coroner likely knows them.
As Blue’s term expires this year and he does not plan to run, Nelson, 68, is angling for the top job. The morgue has attracted national attention for being substandard and run out of a converted garage. Blue would like to see it fixed up and Nelson said he will carry that mantle, too.
“It’s a service job. You owe a true investigation to the dead, but also to the living. People don’t go through this stuff all the time… so I wind up doing a lot of that kind of shepherding,” he said.
Not every state has politically elected coroners. Many larger areas have the more professionalized medical examiner..
It’s only a political role because in Wyoming, the coroner is the only one who can detain the elected sheriff, Nelson said. His office tries to decide cases on the facts, he said. That was the case for Petito, whose death Blue attributed to strangulation.
“There was nothing that would refute that,” Nelson said.
But other times the circumstances are more murky.
“Sometimes we just don’t know,” he said.
The coroner’s office investigates about 40 sudden or unattended deaths each year. Like any community, there are suicides, homicides and car crashes. But there are also deaths that reflect Jackson Hole’s more dramatic landscape, including hikers that fall to their deaths, cars that collide with wildlife, and people struck by lightning.
Nelson describes the job as “long periods of stasis punctuated by short brief periods of intense activity.”
As a general rule of thumb, when you’re on call, you stay in the county, Nelson said. The one time he tried to play hooky to fish with his son in Yellowstone National Park, he got the call just North of Sheffield Creek and had to race back to the office.
When he’s not examining the dead, Nelson caters to the living with music from his guitar, through sets at the Hootenanny and a debut album called “First Track” under the band name Powder Clause.
Blue is known for his outsized personality. The St. John’s Heath board member rescues dogs and has reportedly been the subject of dozens of bark-related civic complaints. For decades he weathered scrutiny as one of the state’s sole abortion providers. In 2022 he settled a lawsuit he filed against the hospital regarding a non-compete contract. Nelson says he plans to be a bit quieter.
“You don’t want to look for trouble. There’s plenty of it out there,” he said.
