‘Somebody needs to take accountability’: 9-month delay in coroner’s report prompts anger from Goderich family

A Goderich family is upset with coroner’s office after a report into their son’s death at Woodstock rodeo took nine months to complete.

Josh Morse had only been bull riding for a year and half, but his family says he absolutely fell in love with it.

“We tried to talk him out of bull riding, because it’s not the safest sport in the world. He used to say to me, ‘Mom, I’ll get hurt, it’s just a matter of how bad,’” recalled Robin Hudson, Josh’s mother.

Morse’s words unfortunately came true last July when, at a bull-riding event in Woodstock, he was severely injured after getting tossed, and ultimately kicked in the head, by his bull.

The 26-year-old died in hospital on Aug. 5, 2025. That afternoon, his family says the coroner’s office called saying they’d have a coroner’s report for them in less than a week’s time.

But that didn’t happen.

“A few weeks passed, so we called. They said, ‘No, it’s not ready yet.’ A few weeks later, we called again. ‘No, not ready.’ I’ve sent emails out, three of them from August to January. They responded to the last one in September, and then all the other emails that I sent, they never responded to,” said Josh’s father, Mark Morse.

After getting nowhere with the Coroner’s Office, their local MPP, the Solicitor General’s Office, or the Ministry of the Attorney General, their phone rang two weeks ago, on April 19.

It was the coroner who called them on the afternoon of Josh’s death. Morse says she explained that she had a medical emergency and multiple surgeries since they spoke in August, and apologized for Josh’s report not getting completed earlier.

“It took nine months and nobody contacted us to let us know the report hadn’t been written. Nobody took accountability for the fact that, as she said, his file got lost in their system,” said Nancy.

“Why did nobody take the time to look and see and go, ‘Oh, we don’t have anything,’ and start an investigation into where his coroner’s report was, and then contact my parents and say, ‘I’m sorry, but this isn’t here. It hasn’t been written,’” asked Morse’s sister, Victoria Hundt.

Josh’s family has the coroner’s report now, and his death has been ruled an accident. But the delay forced Morse’s father to return to work to help cover Josh’s mortgage payments, in lieu of a life insurance claim, that couldn’t be filed until a coroner’s report was completed.

“I don’t want to see another family in the province go through the longing, the waiting, the wondering, the lack of communication that we went through,” said Mark.

While expressing condolences to the Morse family for Josh’s death, the Office of the Chief Coroner, offered the following statement regarding the report’s delay:

“We recognize that delays in the completion of the coroner’s report can be difficult for families who are grieving. The preparation of these reports can be complex and may involve multiple steps to ensure accuracy and completeness. The Office of the Chief Coroner takes concerns regarding timeliness and communication seriously and continuously looks for opportunities for improvement.”

“Somebody needs to take accountability for the fact that this didn’t get passed on to another coroner, or we weren’t contacted and told the coroner that was responsible for it was ill, and there would be a delay,” said Nancy.

“People need to be held accountable at all the levels of management. So, it doesn’t happen to the next person, and family,” added Mark.