Jackson County gets a new coroner after run-off election
Bruce Lynd Jr. will be the next coroner in Jackson County, according to unofficial election returns Tuesday.
Lynd, co-owner of Heritage Funeral Home in Pascagoula, garnered 8,569 votes, while registered nurse Kathleen “Kitty” Seymour-Swetman fell behind with 7,458 votes.
Lynd will replace longtime Coroner Vicki Broadus, who is retiring.
Early on in the race, Lynd said he felt he was the the best candidate for the job because of his experience working with grieving families in the funeral home businesses as well as his years of handling budgets and operations there.
He said his life’s work prepared him for the job because he already knew the “ins and outs of the deceased human body, including causes of death.”
As the new coroner, Lynd plans to continue the fight to get a medical examiner back in South Mississippi to perform autopsies to cut down on the time it takes to receive autopsy results from the overburdened staff at the state medical examiner’s office in Jackson.
Seymour felt her longtime on-the-job training as a nurse charged with detecting health problems and dealing with the dead and dying made her the best candidate for the job.
