Debbie Wilkey said she learned to appreciate an open approach to death after losing her sister to cancer decades ago.

“It was during a time when you didn’t discuss that (death). I met the nurse’s eyes and she just stood there and looked at me,” Wilkey said, remembering her unanswered questions. “I thought, ‘I will never let someone hurt like that.’ If you approach the subject very openly and honestly, it works better for an individual.”

Having filed her candidacy for Kootenai County coroner this week, the deputy coroner said she will apply sensitivity to the position, as well as the objectivity from her background in both law enforcement and medicine.

Originally from Pocatello, Wilkey, 56, started her career in law enforcement to honor her brother-in-law, a police officer killed on duty.

She graduated from the Idaho State University law enforcement program and was certified in Peace Officer Standards and Training in 1973. For the next eight years, she worked for both county and city agencies in Pocatello, her duties spanning jail duty, patrol, investigations, and civil areas.

She participated in death investigations and notifications while serving there, she said, as well as community prevention and education.

“I thought I could help people out in those crisis situations,” she said, adding that she drew from her own experiences with losing loved ones.

In 1984, Wilkey moved with her husband to North Idaho. She obtained a nursing degree from North Idaho College soon after and began a 21-year career in nursing, most with Kootenai Medical Center Emergency Services and critical care.

She was appointed deputy coroner in 2004, which she said has taught her to work with law enforcement agencies in establishing cause of death.

“When I go out on a (crime) scene, I know how to keep myself out of trouble, not step in the middle of their evidence,” she said with a chuckle.

Wilkey also has a bachelor’s of science from Lewis-Clark State College in interdisciplinary studies, and a master’s in forensic anthropology from the University of Montana.

That background has been beneficial in reconstructing people’s lives prior to their deaths, she said.

“It’s interesting to read and interpret things. Close little nuances will tell you a lot about a person’s life,” she said. “For me, it’s very peaceful and I get lost in the history of it and the daily life of this person.”

Wilkey has two grown children.

She is a member of Emergency Nurse’s Association, as well as the International Association of Forensic Nurses and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner council.

Being coroner requires the ability to stay calm in traumatic settings like crime scenes, she said.

“I think I do that very well,” Wilkey said. “You need to be there and take control. You’ve got to be able to speak for people who can’t speak for themselves anymore.”