Campbell County on pace for record suicides and unattended deaths

This story contains references and information about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis or concerned, please call the National Suicide Lifeline at 988, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

GILLETTE — Campbell County recorded 15 suicides in the first seven months of the year, tying its previous year-long record with five months still remaining.

The demographics of those who have died vary widely, with few patterns in terms of age or gender said Ashley McRae, community suicide prevention specialist for Campbell County.

“Honestly, I suspected that this would happen during COVID,” McRae said. “I was hoping I’d be wrong, but I knew with isolation and mental health already being an issue in Campbell County, that we would see an uptick.”

Even though the day-to-day societal impacts of COVID have mostly gone away in Campbell County, McRae said she believes there are still long-term effects manifesting now.

The number of suicides that involved substance users or past substance users has also increased this year when compared to past years.

“The correlation between substance use and suicide is a lot higher than previous years,” McRae said.

Two more Campbell County residents died by suicide this year, but did so out-of-county, which excludes them from the 15 recorded this year, she said.

The trend emerged early in the year and has continued, with an average of about two suicides each month.

From January through March, there were six suicides in Campbell County.

The county had six suicides in all of 2019, followed by 13 in 2020. The count dropped to eight suicides in 2021, before rising again this year.

“I was very concerned with the suicide rate early on in the first three months,” said Campbell County Coroner Paul Wallem. “It was already very evident in the first three months of this year that we were going to have a problem, not just with those types of deaths but in other areas.”

Wallem said the mental health of law enforcement officers and first responders has also been a concern, as they are the ones to respond and assist with many of the suicides and violent crimes, including the number of violent interactions involving local law enforcement this year.

“Very early in the first three months it became evident we were in a very bad situation,” Wallem added.

There have been multiple officer-involved shootings in Campbell County since January, including two involving the Gillette Police Department and one involving the Sheriff’s Office.

And a Gillette man was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Sundance toward the end of July.

In addition to the suicide uptick, the number of overall unattended deaths in the county has also risen, following a trend that also occurred last year.

“I think we’ll set a record for unattended deaths this year,” Wallem said.

There were 130 unattended deaths in the county last year, which set a new record-high. An unattended death is considered any death to occur in the county away from supervised medical care and must go through the coroner’s office for an autopsy.

Through the early parts of this year, the county was on pace to reach 150 unattended deaths, although that pace has slowed to an expectation of about 140 unattended deaths, potentially setting another record, Wallem said.

“I think back to back years, to me, is not an anomaly,” he said about unattended deaths.

The suicide hotline can be reached by calling or texting 988. The number connects callers to trained counselors who will listen, provide support and connect the caller with resources if needed.

The previous suicide hotline number, 1-800-273-8255, still works and will connect callers with help.

Wyomingites can also text “WYO” to 741-741.