Investigations

Responsibilities

The Coroner is required to investigate all deaths in Colusa County that are:

  • Associated with a known or alleged rape or crime against nature
  • Caused from a known or suspected contagious disease and constituting a public hazard
  • Caused from drowning, fire, gunshots, stabbing, starvation, exposure, alcoholism, drug addiction, aspiration, or accidental poisoning
  • Caused from occupational diseases or occupational hazards
  • Fetal deaths when the gestation period is 20 weeks or longer
  • Following an accident or injury
  • In operating rooms or where a patient has not fully recovered from an anesthetic whether in surgery, a recovery room, or elsewhere
  • In prison or while under sentence
  • Involving any criminal action or suspicion of a criminal act
  • Involving a physician who is unable to state the cause of death
  • Involving patients who are comatose throughout the period of the physician's attendance
  • Involving patients who have not been attended by a physician in the 20 days prior to death
  • Involving unidentified persons
  • Known or suspected homicides
  • Known or suspected suicides
  • Related to or following known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion
  • Suspected to be caused by sudden infant death syndrome
  • Unattended deaths, meaning the physician did not attend the patient or was absent during the death

Autopsies

An autopsy may be necessary to determine the medical cause of death. Another reason would be to gather evidence for presentation in a court of law.

For More Information

For more information about the coroner's office, please contact the Sheriff's Department at (530) 458-0200.