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Rochelle Olson, Star Tribune
July 27, 2004 MEDEXAM0727
As the new Hennepin County medical examiner, Andrew Baker will oversee several hundred autopsies every year, providing evidence in trials and answers to grieving families.
"The dead people who come through this office are my patients," He said. "Obviously there's not much I can do for them. But there's a great deal I can do for their family and friends."
In June, with an unanimous appointment by the County Board, Baker became only the third medical examiner in county history.
Although popular TV shows, such as "C.S.I." and "Crossing Jordan," have brought a luster of celebrity to forensic pathology, Baker sees himself not as a star, but as a scientist and administrator.
The 36-year-old Eden Prairie resident is parsimonious with details about his life and, although he has thoughtful views on many topics, he's stingy about what he will allow to be published.
Baker does concede that he became interested in forensic pathology watching the TV show "Quincy, M.E.," while growing up in Mason City, Iowa.
His potential in the profession was noted early by his nationally esteemed predecessor, Garry Peterson, who hired Baker for a one-year fellowship in 1997.
In 2002, Baker became Peterson's assistant.
Baker now works out of a spotlessly, shiny office next to the Metrodome, but he has been to battlefields, including mass graves in Kosovo and the rubble of the post-9/11 Pentagon.
"How do you not vote for him?" Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein asked after Baker was confirmed in June.
Perils of war
Baker, who attended medical school on a military scholarship, was a forensic pathologist working for the Defense Department in 1999 when he was asked to go to Kosovo to document war crimes.
"That is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go overseas and do human-rights pathology," he said. "We went from one crime scene to the next. ... It was very, very disturbing to see killings on such a large scale as part of your own lifetime. ... We'd like to believe genocides like that were things of the past."
At one grave site, six men had been shot in front of their families. Because the local graveyard had been filled with land mines, survivors were compelled to bury the men in a yard without embalming them.
The families stood nearby as Baker and others dug up the bodies. "It's hard to put into words what it's like to have a grieving family watch," he said.
The pathologists dug up the bodies so they could perform autopsies. Those exams performed by Baker and others provided scientific evidence to corroborate eyewitness accounts for international war crimes trials. "In a larger sense, I would like to see history give a voice to the people who were killed," Baker said.
He later returned to work at the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
"When I got back from Kosovo, I was absolutely convinced nothing in my professional work was going to compare to that," he said. "All of that changed on the morning of September 11th."
He lived only miles from the Pentagon, so F-16s and Marine Corps helicopters were patrolling his own neighborhood in the hours after terrorists crashed a jetliner into the military headquarters.
After the attack, 2,000 pieces of human remains were removed painstakingly from the debris and taken to Dover Air Force Base, where the U.S. military maintains its mortuary.
Some of the victims were children. The remains ranged from entire, intact bodies of those who died from smoke inhalation, to charred fragments of body tissue that no amount of science could identify.
Baker was on a team of forensic pathologists whose task was to determine who was who among the 188 victims, about a third of whom were on the airliner.
The job was made more difficult with the knowledge that the remains of the five terrorists who hijacked the jet were among them.
"You've got to be able to say to the family, 'The only thing I'm giving you is your loved ones, and there are no terrorist remains mingled,' " Baker said.
No identifiable remains were found for five of the victims. "It's very disappointing to go back to a family and say, 'We did our scientific best, but there's nothing we can give you to bury,' " he said.
Personal details
Baker allows some details about himself. He's a marathon runner, and his favorite TV show is the original "Law and Order." (He said he's disappointed to see Jerry Orbach, who plays detective Lennie Briscoe, leave the show.) The popular forensic pathology shows stretch the truth too far, he said.
He's an avid reader, splitting his time between fiction and nonfiction. He recently enjoyed "The Rule of Four," a murder mystery. He will take anything by Edward O. Wilson, including "Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration."
Baker is interested in Brian Greene's writings on superstring theory, but admits he has to read very, very slowly.
His time with dead people hasn't given him revelatory insight on longevity, but he advises to always wear a seat belt, don't smoke and be careful about what you eat.
He comes to an office that enjoys a national reputation because of the quality of his two predecessors, Peterson and John Coe, and the community support for its work.
Peterson, who ran the office from 1984 to 2004 and started there in 1973, now is accreditation chairman for the National Association of Medical Examiners.
With a reputation as a Renaissance man schooled in science and the classics, Peterson early on took notice of Baker's mix of scientific analytical skill and leadership ability.
"What attracts people to forensic pathology is you get back to people. They think it's dead people. No. No. No. You're dealing with family, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and journalists," Peterson said.
The broad nature of the work is what Baker loves most: helping families, going to crime scenes and testifying in court.
Cases involving children are the toughest, especially the chronic abuse cases, where the child's body tells the tale of brutality right up to the final blow. "It's hard to think about what the child went through," he said.
Peterson said he has no doubts about his successor's ability to handle all aspects of the job.
"You'll see as the years go by how good he is and how much compassion he has for the survivors and the people he has to work with," Peterson said. "The office is in good hands."
Rochelle Olson is at raolson@startribune.com
July 27, 2004 MEDEXAM0727
As the new Hennepin County medical examiner, Andrew Baker will oversee several hundred autopsies every year, providing evidence in trials and answers to grieving families.
"The dead people who come through this office are my patients," He said. "Obviously there's not much I can do for them. But there's a great deal I can do for their family and friends."
In June, with an unanimous appointment by the County Board, Baker became only the third medical examiner in county history.
Although popular TV shows, such as "C.S.I." and "Crossing Jordan," have brought a luster of celebrity to forensic pathology, Baker sees himself not as a star, but as a scientist and administrator.
The 36-year-old Eden Prairie resident is parsimonious with details about his life and, although he has thoughtful views on many topics, he's stingy about what he will allow to be published.
Baker does concede that he became interested in forensic pathology watching the TV show "Quincy, M.E.," while growing up in Mason City, Iowa.
His potential in the profession was noted early by his nationally esteemed predecessor, Garry Peterson, who hired Baker for a one-year fellowship in 1997.
In 2002, Baker became Peterson's assistant.
Baker now works out of a spotlessly, shiny office next to the Metrodome, but he has been to battlefields, including mass graves in Kosovo and the rubble of the post-9/11 Pentagon.
"How do you not vote for him?" Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein asked after Baker was confirmed in June.
Perils of war
Baker, who attended medical school on a military scholarship, was a forensic pathologist working for the Defense Department in 1999 when he was asked to go to Kosovo to document war crimes.
"That is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go overseas and do human-rights pathology," he said. "We went from one crime scene to the next. ... It was very, very disturbing to see killings on such a large scale as part of your own lifetime. ... We'd like to believe genocides like that were things of the past."
At one grave site, six men had been shot in front of their families. Because the local graveyard had been filled with land mines, survivors were compelled to bury the men in a yard without embalming them.
The families stood nearby as Baker and others dug up the bodies. "It's hard to put into words what it's like to have a grieving family watch," he said.
The pathologists dug up the bodies so they could perform autopsies. Those exams performed by Baker and others provided scientific evidence to corroborate eyewitness accounts for international war crimes trials. "In a larger sense, I would like to see history give a voice to the people who were killed," Baker said.
He later returned to work at the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
"When I got back from Kosovo, I was absolutely convinced nothing in my professional work was going to compare to that," he said. "All of that changed on the morning of September 11th."
He lived only miles from the Pentagon, so F-16s and Marine Corps helicopters were patrolling his own neighborhood in the hours after terrorists crashed a jetliner into the military headquarters.
After the attack, 2,000 pieces of human remains were removed painstakingly from the debris and taken to Dover Air Force Base, where the U.S. military maintains its mortuary.
Some of the victims were children. The remains ranged from entire, intact bodies of those who died from smoke inhalation, to charred fragments of body tissue that no amount of science could identify.
Baker was on a team of forensic pathologists whose task was to determine who was who among the 188 victims, about a third of whom were on the airliner.
The job was made more difficult with the knowledge that the remains of the five terrorists who hijacked the jet were among them.
"You've got to be able to say to the family, 'The only thing I'm giving you is your loved ones, and there are no terrorist remains mingled,' " Baker said.
No identifiable remains were found for five of the victims. "It's very disappointing to go back to a family and say, 'We did our scientific best, but there's nothing we can give you to bury,' " he said.
Personal details
Baker allows some details about himself. He's a marathon runner, and his favorite TV show is the original "Law and Order." (He said he's disappointed to see Jerry Orbach, who plays detective Lennie Briscoe, leave the show.) The popular forensic pathology shows stretch the truth too far, he said.
He's an avid reader, splitting his time between fiction and nonfiction. He recently enjoyed "The Rule of Four," a murder mystery. He will take anything by Edward O. Wilson, including "Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration."
Baker is interested in Brian Greene's writings on superstring theory, but admits he has to read very, very slowly.
His time with dead people hasn't given him revelatory insight on longevity, but he advises to always wear a seat belt, don't smoke and be careful about what you eat.
He comes to an office that enjoys a national reputation because of the quality of his two predecessors, Peterson and John Coe, and the community support for its work.
Peterson, who ran the office from 1984 to 2004 and started there in 1973, now is accreditation chairman for the National Association of Medical Examiners.
With a reputation as a Renaissance man schooled in science and the classics, Peterson early on took notice of Baker's mix of scientific analytical skill and leadership ability.
"What attracts people to forensic pathology is you get back to people. They think it's dead people. No. No. No. You're dealing with family, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and journalists," Peterson said.
The broad nature of the work is what Baker loves most: helping families, going to crime scenes and testifying in court.
Cases involving children are the toughest, especially the chronic abuse cases, where the child's body tells the tale of brutality right up to the final blow. "It's hard to think about what the child went through," he said.
Peterson said he has no doubts about his successor's ability to handle all aspects of the job.
"You'll see as the years go by how good he is and how much compassion he has for the survivors and the people he has to work with," Peterson said. "The office is in good hands."
Rochelle Olson is at raolson@startribune.com
