Coroner Duties

MISSION STATEMENT

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office determines the cause and manner of reported deaths by conducting professional medicolegal death investigations while ensuring that everyone who has suffered a loss is treated with dignity, respect and compassion.

VISION STATEMENT

  1. The LCCO is accessible and accountable to the public, media and other elected officials.
  2. The LCCO continually strives to increase the proficiency and professionalism of all staff members through training.
  3. The LCCO endeavors to develop and strengthen partnerships with the public safety community.
  4. The LCCO works with community partners to adopt a proactive approach to reducing preventable deaths.

The Coroner is responsible for leading a team of medicolegal death investigators as well as running the administration of the office. The Lewis County Coroner's Office is responsible for determining the cause and manner of deaths reported. A cause of death is simply that; the factor that led directly to the death. The manner is a category into which the cause is classified and there are five manners:

Homicide: The killing of one human being by another.

Suicide: The intentional taking of one’s own life.

Accidental: No intention of causing the death.

Natural: The disease process.

Undetermined: The death cannot be categorized into any other manner.

The way cause and manner is determined is by conducting medicolegal death investigations. This involves following investigative procedures established by the International Association of Coroners & Medical Examiners (IAC&ME) and the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI)

For deaths outside of medical facilities we are notified by law enforcement agencies who are handling the scene investigation.

The medicolegal death investigation begins with a representative of this office responding to the scene. Interviews are conducted with law enforcement, medical staff and decedent's families, friends, or witnesses, to get a baseline series of events leading up to and what occurred after the death. The scene is documented with photographs, paperwork, and scene sketches. Evidence is located, marked and documented. A complete head-to-toe physical examination is conducted on the decedent to locate and document any injuries, scars/marks or changes.

Transportation of the decedent back to the LCCO is done by Removal Technicians employed by the LCCO. The decedent can also be directly released to the mortuary of the family’s choice (depending on circumstances). Medical records are ordered for review and the investigators then complete a comprehensive report.

Medical facilities: per the state statute governing the coroner’s office, (RCW 68) if the person is under a doctor’s care for over 24 hours, then this office does not assume jurisdiction and the treating physician signs the Death Certificate as long as the death is natural. If it is any of the other manners then we assume jurisdiction.

Some cases require an autopsy and these include any type of non-natural deaths or apparent natural deaths in younger decedents with no medical history. In some cases a toxicology is required where the blood is sent to a certified tox lab for analysis which includes all substances and their specific amounts found in the blood sample. Toxicology results can take 4-5 weeks to come back.

The results of the autopsy and the toxicology results are examined by the Forensic Pathologist and the cause and manner of death are based on those findings.

The Lewis County Coroner's Office is also responsible for the positive identification of the decedent which in most cases can be done by having someone who is related to or knew the decedent view them or a photograph. In cases where viewing is not possible due to severe injury or post-mortem changes, we use a variety of the following methods:

Fingerprints

Dental comparisons

Surgical implants

DNA

The Lewis County Coroner's Office is also responsible for locating and notifying the legal next of kin. In WA State, the legal next of kin is defined by RCW 68.50.160 as:

The person designated by the decedent as authorized to direct disposition as listed on the decedent's United States department of defense record of emergency data, DD form 93, or its successor form, if the decedent died while serving in military service as described in 10 U.S.C. Sec. 1481(a) (1)-(8) in any branch of the United States armed forces, United States reserve forces, or national guard;

(b) The designated agent of the decedent as directed through a written document signed and dated by the decedent in the presence of a witness. The direction of the designated agent is sufficient to direct the type, place, and method of disposition;

(c) The surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner;

(d) The majority of the surviving adult children of the decedent;

(e) The surviving parents of the decedent;

(f) The majority of the surviving siblings of the decedent;

(g) A court-appointed guardian for the person at the time of the person's death.

Many times, the next of kin is at the scene of the death, but when they are not, locating them can be difficult. A decedent may have told people they know that they have no family or that they are estranged for many years. We have access to databases that are not open to the general public for us to try and find the legal next of kin. We search records and make calls to try and find the family.

In cases where no family can be found, or we find family and they want nothing to do with the decedent, we hold the decedent for 45 days. After 45 days, an indigent cremation is performed and the cremated remains are returned to this office. If the family does not want the cremated remains back or we cannot find family, the cremated remains are interred once per year at a local cemetery. If the indigent decedent is found out to be a military veteran, they are interred at Tahoma National Cemetery once per year.

All autopsies are performed by a Board Certificated Forensic Pathologist who works through contractual services for us. To become a forensic pathologist they must graduate from medical school and then spend an additional 10 years training in order to be eligible to sit for the national board examination for forensic pathologist.

The Lewis County Coroner's Office provides decedent transports from the scene to our office. These transports are performed by Lewis County Coroner's Office Removal Technicians who are on-call 24 hours per day.

Once the family has chosen a final funeral home, the Death Certificate is generated electronically by that funeral home in the Washington Health and Life Events System (WHALES) and it is assigned to the person who will be signing, either this office or the decedent’s primary physician. Once signed electronically it is filed with the county health district and then become certified.

The process of conducting medicolegal death investigations in order to determine the cause and manner of the death can, in some case, be a long process but the desired outcome is a an accurate finding of what happened. Everyone in this office realizes the responsibility we have to speak for those people who no longer have a voice of their own. Investigations are conducted professionally and families are treated with compassion, dignity, and respect.