brent blue

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

The Teton County coroner who made national headlines this week due to his announcement of the cause and manner of death of Gabby Petito will resign from his position at the Jackson hospital, he announced Thursday.

Dr. Brent Blue announced his resignation from St. John’s Health in Jackson on Thursday on his social media account. His resignation was prompted due to his personal use of a computer while at work.

“Unfortunately St. John Health had told me I cannot use my personal computer at work even though other doctors do plus it is critical for my Coroner responsibilities,” Blue wrote on social media Thursday. “It does not interfere with my work with patients and other SJH duties.”

His last day at the hospital will be Feb. 10. He has been working there since December 1982, according to the hospital website.

He said that hospital officials essentially forced him to resign from his position as a family medicine and primary care doctor at the hospital.

“I am prohibited by contract from saying anything derogatory about the hospital but you would think with all the recent publicity, they would have been honored to be associated with me,” Blue wrote. “Nothing above is derogatory. It is just factual.”

Blue will stay on as the county coroner, however, and said he plans to return to private practice in a limited fashion once he resigns, although the location of his practice is yet to be determined.

He said that the last month has been stressful due to the Petito case, dealing with the media, working with law enforcement and a “few wackos who have sent Emails.”

Blue held a news conference earlier this week to announce the cause and manner of Petito’s death: homicide by strangulation.

He was peppered with questions by reporters from Wyoming and all over the nation, including TV host John Walsh, but was unable to answer most of them.

Petito’s case has become a national sensation since she was reported missing in early September. Her fiance, Brian Laundrie, disappeared not long before her remains were found in Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Blue said on Tuesday that Petito’s body had been in the forest for three to four weeks before she was discovered, but could not say how he made that determination.

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