There appears to be a brewing schism developing between the Bucks County Coroner’s office and the Bristol Township Police Department as they traded barbs earlier this week. 

The fireworks began Monday when, Coroner Meredith Buck issued a tersely worded press release contradicting police statements in their initial release of the June 27th “drowning” of the man who allegedly tried to steal a Pontoon boat and then jumped into the Delaware River on the 6600 block of Radcliffe Street.

Early Monday morning, a body was spotted floating in the Delaware River. 

Credit: Heidi Sharpe

In her release she said “…the cause and manner” of the man’s  death “continues to be under investigation.”

A short time later, Lower Bucks Source contacted Buck to follow up about  about her statement. Specifically about the cause and manner of death and that the investigation remains open. 

“For starters you can’t call someone dead if you don’t have a body. No dead body. No drowning”, the Coroner said.

“The investigation was a mess from the minute one” she added.

Asked if the partial sentence from the press release was specifically directed at Bristol Township Police, Buck said forcefully its her job to determine the cause and manner of death. No one else’s.

Buck said a full autopsy of the man found floating in the Delaware will be completed by the end of the week.

“I’ll release my findings then,” she said.

Bristol Township Police Lt C.J. Winik issued the township’s press release about the June 27th incident the following morning calling it a drowning. 

“We do follow the evidence. We have multiple witnesses and other evidence to support the drowning.” Winik said. 

Coroner Buck ” …does determine the cause of death like she said but we have been doing this for a while. We know what happened.  The coroner is only a piece of the evidence.  She doesn’t have the video and 911 calls and witness accounts,” Winik said.  

Lower Bucks Source, at the time, was aware there was at least one video account of the suspect jumping into the river when confronted by the Pontoon boat owner.

This is not the first public fight Buck has had during her tenure as coroner. 

 After she was elected, the Democratic side, she sued the Bucks County Commissioners during the 2021 county budget discussions for cutting her office’s budget by a little more than $1 million dollars during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Senior Judge Emanual A. Bertin, an out-of-county judge appointed to the case, had previously tossed most of the lawsuit when he dismissed three counts that sought court intervention in the 2021 budget process. “It is the Commissioners’ sole responsibility, without interference or monitoring by the courts, to set budgets and deal with the demands of departments within County government,” he wrote. 

Following a October 2022 bench trial on the sole remaining count of her complaint, the judge issued an order dismissing with prejudice the Coroner’s suit.

Buck was primaried earlier this year and lost her bid for reelection, losing to party endorsed Patti Campi by more than 10,000 votes according to county election results.

Anyone with information to contact the  Bristol Township Police Department at 267-812-3000 or the Bucks County Coroner’s Office at 267-880- 5040.