Lifelong public servant with a ‘big heart.’ Beaufort Co. Coroner announces retirement

Following nearly half a century in public service — including three decades in Beaufort County — Coroner David Ott is hanging up his last of many hats. His retirement in January will cap off a four-year term of continual achievements at his office, including his recent recognition as the state’s top coroner.

“My heart has always been with helping the citizens of Beaufort County,” said Ott, who last week was named 2024’s coroner of the year at the South Carolina Coroners’ Association’s annual conference. It’s not only a first-time achievement for Ott, who had been nominated twice before; he also made history as the first coroner from Beaufort County to receive the statewide award.

Ott was elected coroner in 2020 following 11 years in the coroner’s office as both a deputy and chief deputy coroner. The Beaufort native graduated from Battery Creek High School in 1977 and quickly began a long career in law enforcement , including early positions at police departments in Jeffersonville, Ga., and Gray, Ga.

He made a return to the Lowcountry in 1986, working as a detective for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and Beaufort Police Department until 2009.

With 29 years in law enforcement under his belt, Ott carried heaps of valuable experience into his new career at the coroner’s office. Even while overseeing a different side of the investigative process, his keen eye for crime scenes made it easy to collaborate with police — an essential part of the job.

“It’s always appreciated when I go to a scene and the investigators ask me for my opinion: What do I think happened? What did I see?” Ott told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “I value them, and at the same time, they value my opinion ... We work very well together.”

Ott began considering retirement after his wife Kitty retired two years ago, he said. While far from an easy decision, he says stepping down was made less difficult by the phenomenal staff he’s leaving behind — including Chief Deputy Coroner Debbie Youmans, who has filed to run for coroner herself in the Nov. 5 statewide general election.

“Debbie is running unopposed,” Ott said. “I think she would carry the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office forward in the same manner that I and my staff have. I feel very, very comfortable with her accepting the position.”

Ott gave special thanks to his wife and family for their support throughout his career.

The coroner’s office is responsible for investigating all suspicious, violent, sudden and unexpected deaths in Beaufort County. Staff members are responsible for notifying the next of kin after a death, conducting autopsies to make official medical rulings and working closely with law enforcement on homicides and other cases.

Three years of progress

Ott’s tenure as coroner was marked by innovation after innovation: He secured funds to complete a long-planned pathology department within the coroner’s facilities in Port Royal, saving taxpayers money with the ability to perform autopsies locally; his office became the first in the state to employ a forensic pathologist , a vital resource amid a nationwide shortage of the professionals; and late last year, his office unveiled two new pieces of advanced equipment that coincided with an elite accreditation status.

One accomplishment in particular holds a special place in Ott’s heart: finding homes for dozens of unidentified cremains that had been stored for years in the office’s evidence room, some dating back to the early 1980s. After years of searching and researching, almost half found their way back to family members.

“There was no action whatsoever by the coroner’s office until I took office,” Ott said of the unclaimed ashes. “When I did, I tasked my department to get the boxes down and go to the internet. It’s so advanced — Google searches and background checks — the sources are wide open compared to what they were back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

Out of 62 total unclaimed cremains, 27 were returned to relatives within the next two years, including those of Maria Telles-Gonzalez , a Florida woman murdered in Yemassee in 1995 who for 27 years had only been know as the “ Beaufort County Jane Doe .”

Thirty-one cremains were interred in a mausoleum purchased by Beaufort County, while four belonging to veterans were laid to rest with military honors at the Beaufort National Cemetery, according to Ott.

‘What a public servant should be’

Despite the office’s long list of accomplishments, Ott’s love for public service prevails above all else. While the job can be heartbreaking at times, he said, nothing holds more value than supporting community members through their darkest days.

“It’s the worst time in our career when we have to knock on a door at 3 o’clock in the morning and tell a mom and dad that their child is not coming home,” Ott said. “It knocks the parents back, but at the same time, it knocks each one of us back. We try not to show our emotions or get involved, but sometimes, us being humans, you can get teary-eyed right beside them.”

And the support extends far beyond an initial death notification. “The main thing is to stay by their side long after you tell them the horrible news — for days, weeks, it can even be a year later,” Ott added. “We still see people a year or so down the road, and they come up and they thank us for being there.”

Just as much as technical prowess, the job requires an abundance of grace and compassion. It’s a much less palpable skillset, but Ott excels in the area all the same, his colleagues say.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner has worked with four coroners during his 26-tenure in office. “They all have done a very difficult and respected service in Beaufort County,” he told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “(Ott’s) retirement is very deserving, and I wish him the best.”

“He has the utmost compassion when dealing with families who have lost a loved one,” Youmans wrote in her letter nominating Ott for coroner of the year, calling him “the true epitome of what a public servant should be.”

Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal, a longtime friend of Ott, spoke passionately about the coroner’s “big heart” in a phone interview, also emphasizing how the office’s local infrastructure improvements can be shared among neighboring counties as investments in public safety.

“David himself has just accomplished more in three years of a term than probably any coroner I’ve encountered,” O’Neal said. “It’s been an honor to have him as a neighbor.”

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