Mendocino Co. violent crimes up in 2020, new stats show — total coroner’s cases up 40%, jumps in suicides, homicide, ODs, & of course COVID increase total

FORT BRAGG, 4/16/21 — Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall said 2020 was a “bad year” for criminal activity in the unincorporated areas of the county. Newly obtained totals for 2020 show an increase in most violent crimes including homicides, while other crime stats, such as domestic violence, are down, though Kendall attributes this to underreporting. (We’ve compiled a list of all the 2020 homicides we have documentation for at the bottom, scroll down or follow this link)

The biggest change in Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) statistics from 2020 were the total number of coroner’s cases last year. The coroner’s office handled a total of 467 deaths in 2020, up from 333 in 2019, an increase of 40 percent. Numbers of deaths were roughly steady back to 2015 before the big jump in 2020. There were 313 coroner case deaths in 2018, 350 in 2017, 329, in 2016 and 325 in 2015. Not all deaths that occur in Mendocino Co. are handled by the coroner, and most deaths of what we’d consider “natural causes,” at which a physician signs off are not coroner’s cases. The 2014 – 2020 numbers were provided to the Mendocino Voice on April 14 by Mendocino County’s Sheriff’s Department Capt. Gregory Van Patten. (For a detailed explanation of deaths considered coroner’s case vs. natural causes, see the bottom of this page, or follow the link)