Delaware § 4706 - Investigation of deaths [For application of this section, see 84 Del. Laws, c. 261, § 16].

§ 4706. Investigation of deaths [For application of this section, see 84 Del. Laws, c. 261, § 16].

(a) When an individual dies in this State, as a result of violence, by suicide or by casualty if such occurred not longer than 1 year and 1 day prior to death, while under anesthesia, by abortion or suspected abortion, by poison or suspicion of poison, by overdose death as defined at § 4799A of Title 16 or suddenly when in apparent health or when unattended by a physician or in any prison or penal institution or when in police custody or from a disease resulting from employment including disease related to injury or from an undiagnosed cause which may be related to a disease constituting a threat to public health or in any suspicious or unusual manner or if there is any unclaimed body or a body is to be cremated or subjected to natural organic reduction, it is the duty of the person having knowledge of the death or of the person issuing a permit for cremation or natural organic reduction under § 3159 of Title 16 immediately to notify the Chief Medical Examiner, an Assistant Medical Examiner, or a Deputy Medical Examiner, as the case may be, who in turn shall notify the Attorney General of the known facts concerning the time, place, manner, and circumstances of the death. A person who wilfully neglects or refuses to report the death or who refuses to make available prior medical or other information pertinent to the death investigation or who, without an order from the Division of Forensic Science, wilfully touches, removes, or disturbs the clothing or any article on or near the body shall on conviction be subject to imprisonment for not more than 1 year or pay a fine of not more than $1,000, or both.

(b) Immediately upon receipt of such notification, the Medical Examiner shall take charge of the dead body if either the Medical Examiner or the Attorney General shall deem it necessary. The Division of Forensic Science shall promptly notify a relative or close acquaintance of the deceased, if known, of such action.

(c) The Medical Examiner shall fully investigate the essential facts concerning the medical causes of death and may take the names and addresses of as many witnesses as may be practicable to obtain and shall reduce such facts as the Medical Examiner may deem necessary to writing and file the same in the Division of Forensic Science. The essential facts concerning the medical causes of death of any person who has died from an overdose death as defined at § 4799A of Title 16 shall be communicated to the Delaware Department of Justice.

(d) The Medical Examiner or a duly authorized investigator, in the absence of the next of kin, shall take possession of the personal property found on the deceased and make an exact inventory thereof on the Medical Examiner’s report. If necessary an attending police officer may take temporary possession of such property in behalf of the Medical Examiner or an authorized investigator.

(e) The Medical Examiner shall take possession of any object or articles which, in the Medical Examiner’s opinion, may be useful in establishing the identity of the deceased person or the cause of death and deliver them to the Attorney General. The balance of the personal property of the deceased remaining in the possession of the Medical Examiner shall be released to the next of kin of the deceased or the personal representative of the deceased.

29 Del. C. 1953, §  4710;  50 Del. Laws, c. 502, §  1;  53 Del. Laws, c. 175, §§  5-7;  57 Del. Laws, c. 140, §  1;  58 Del. Laws, c. 58, §  1;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1;  79 Del. Laws, c. 265, §  1;  80 Del. Laws, c. 220, §  2;  84 Del. Laws, c. 261, § 12;