Coroner Susan Chewning, Charleston County's chief advocate for the dead, plans to resign next month from the office she has held for 14 years so she can pursue other interests.

Chewning, who is expected to formally announce her resignation today, will be leaving office in the middle of her fourth term as coroner. She said she has received a verbal commitment from Gov. Mark Sanford that he will appoint her chief deputy, Rae Wooten, to serve out the remainder of her term, which ends in 2008.

Chewning, 48, said Wednesday that she and her husband plan to sell their Johns Island home and move full time to their farm in Colleton County. She said it was time for a change and that she wants to pursue new opportunities but has nothing definite planned. "I'm wide open," she said.

She does, however, plan to continue working to open the Lowcountry's first DNA testing lab.

The project hit a major stumbling block earlier this year when the host agency, the Carolina Medical Assessment Center, went out of business. Officials have been exploring alternatives.

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said Chewning has been instrumental in the project, which should boost the region's crime-fighting efforts.

Chewning was a virtual unknown when she entered the coroner's race in 1992, the only woman among five candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the job. She had worked for 13 years as a registered nurse and put her engineering degree to use as a production manager with Robert Bosch Corp., but she had never held elected office.

Still, Chewning handily defeated former Sheriff L.E. Kornahrens in a runoff for the nomination and went on to defeat Democrat Charles Green in the general election.

"I was truly not known, and I'm very shy," she said. "So when I was voted in, I really took that vote of confidence seriously that I was here to speak for the dead and treat families with compassion."

Supporters say Chewning, who has breezed to re-election three times, has remained committed to treating the dead with dignity and staying on top of forensic procedures and investigative techniques. Last year, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention featured the coroner's office in a training film designed to teach others how infant death investigations should be handled.

"I think she is leaving behind a coroner's office that is probably on par with most of the top ones in the country," said Detective Sgt. Michael Gordon, a Charleston police homicide investigator.

Chewning, who earns about $80,000 a year, oversees an office with annual budget of about $500,000. She and her staff of three deputy coroners oversee more than 1,000 death investigations each year.

Wooten, who has worked with Chewning for 12 years, said she hopes to build upon the work begun by Chewning if she is appointed coroner.

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Sanford, said the governor is not expected to select a successor until the coroner's resignation becomes effective.

Chewning tenure has not been without some controversy. Former county medical examiners Kim Collins and Sandra Conradi clashed with Chewning over their overlapping authority, including decisions over whether an autopsy is ordered. Chewning outlasted her opponents, and the medical examiner's post has been vacant since Collins resigned in 2001.

Chewning also led a rare coroner's inquest into the mysterious death of Molly Wrazen, a young pharmacist who was found shot to death inside the Mount Pleasant apartment of her boyfriend, a narcotics detective, in November 2003.

Police and State Law Enforcement Division agents treated Wrazen's death as a suicide, but friends and family suspected otherwise. Chewning called for an inquest in August 2004. After three days of testimony, a jury determined that Wrazen's death was a homicide, and that SLED had bungled its investigation. After the verdict, the SLED agent in charge of the case quit, and two supervisors were reprimanded. The jury's finding also triggered a new investigation by SLED.

Though the outcome of the probe is still pending, Chewning said she accomplished what she set out to do: win a deeper look into Wrazen's death. "She deserved a better investigation," she said. "That's all I was after."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.