Missouri Coroner Specific Laws Part 1 of 5
From The El Dorado Springs Newsroom
A Coroner must be familiar with a wide variety of state laws, known as the Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo); laws regarding not only death and homicides, but prescription and illicit drug laws (Title XII PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, Chapters 195 and 196 Drug Regulations), suspected child and elderly abuse laws (RSMo Chapter 210), use of emergency vehicles (Title XIX MOTOR VEHICLES, WATERCRAFT AND AVIATION Chapters 304 and 307), and firearms (RSMo 571.030). Missouri Coroner laws are contained in RSMo Chapter 58, Coroners and Inquests. In the following next five articles, selected of these Ch. 58 laws will be copied verbatim from RSMo (https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=58) showing when the Coroner is required to conduct an investigation, how an investigation can be conducted when people are uncooperative, and when it is an option for the coroner to conduct an autopsy and when an autopsy is mandated. These laws explain why the coroner investigates some deaths and not others.
58.180. To be conservator of the peace. — A coroner shall be a conservator of the peace throughout his county, and shall take inquests of violent and casual deaths happening in the same, or where the body of any person coming to his death shall be discovered in his county.
58.260. Coroner may issue warrant to summon coroner’s jury, when. — Every coroner, having been notified of the dead body of any person, supposed to have come to his or her death by violence or casualty, being found within his county, may make out his or her warrant, directed to the sheriff of the county where the dead body is found, requiring him or her forthwith to summon a jury of six good and lawful citizens of the county, to appear before such coroner, at the time and place in his or her warrant expressed, and to inquire how and by whom he or she came to his or her death.
58.330. Coroner to issue subpoenas. — Every coroner shall be empowered to issue his or her summons for witnesses, and such evidence, documents, and materials of substance, commanding them to come before him or her to be examined, and to declare their knowledge concerning the matter in question.
58.445. Deaths due to motor vehicle or motorized watercraft accidents — report required when — tests for alcohol and drugs, when. — 1. If any person within a coroner’s or medical examiner’s jurisdiction dies within eight hours of, and as a result of, an accident involving a motor vehicle, the coroner or medical examiner shall report the death and circumstances of the accident to the Missouri state highway patrol in writing. If any person within a coroner’s or medical examiner’s jurisdiction dies within eight hours of, and as a result of, an accident involving a motorized watercraft and was thought to have been the operator of such watercraft, the coroner or medical examiner shall report the death and circumstances of the accident to the Missouri state highway patrol, water patrol division, in writing. The report required by this subsection shall be made within five days of the conclusion of the tests required in subsection 2 of this section.
2. The coroner or medical examiner shall make, or cause to be made, such tests as are necessary to determine the presence and percentage concentration of alcohol, and drugs if feasible, in the blood of the deceased. The results of these tests shall be included in the coroner’s or medical examiner’s report to the state highway patrol as required by subsection 1 of this section.
Danny Leo Green,
Cedar County Coroner
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