About the Coroner's Office

Roles of our Office

The Mesa County Coroner’s Office is charged with investigating certain categories of deaths that could potentially be from violence among many others.

Due to drugs or toxins
Deaths that are sudden and unexpected
Hospital deaths where the individual died less than 24 hours after admission to the hospital and in-custody deaths.
Not all deaths in the county fall under the jurisdiction of the Mesa County Coroner’s Office.
- An older person who has a significant natural disease process and dies after an extended stay in a hospital would not be considered a case the Coroner’s Office would investigate.
The Coroner’s Office acts independently from law enforcement and is it’s “own office” when they do their investigations.
Office gains knowledge of each death through
- Scene investigation,
- Interviews with family and witnesses,
- Medical record review and
- Possibly autopsy examination.

Responsibilities of our Office

The elected Coroner is expected to maintain a competent staff of medicolegal death investigators
Person responsible for ensuring the death investigations follow national standards.
The Coroner is essentially the case coordinator in the death investigation
- They ultimately determine the cause and manner of death and if an autopsy needs to be performed.
Although it is assumed the Coroner should have some medical knowledge and many feel the Coroner should be a physician, this is not considered to be a requirement to be Mesa County Coroner.
The Coroner’s Office is the entity that ultimately determines the cause and manner of death in the cases they have involvement.
Responsibilities of the Coroner’s Office.
- Notifying the next of kin of their loved one’s death.
- Helping with the disposition the deceased individual.
- Signing the death certificate on many of the deaths they investigate.
- Determining the disposition of the body after the examination is complete.
The Mesa County Coroner’s Office is responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected deaths that occur within Mesa County.
Not all deaths in the county fall under the jurisdiction of the Coroner’s Office but some examples of those deaths that are investigated.
- Anyone that dies from a violent means.
- Death as a result of the use of a drug or toxin.
- Death due to complication of a medical procedure.
- Unexpected death at home.
- Death after being hospitalized for less than 24 hours.
The Mesa County Coroner is the decision-maker in determining if an autopsy needs to be performed and also determining the cause and manner of death.

Services provided by our Office

Ensuring the death certificates are signed appropriately for the deaths they investigate.
- Signing the death certificate themselves.
- Consulting with the decedent’s physician to assist them in the most logical way to sign the certificate.
- A certain level of medical knowledge is expected by the Mesa County Coroners’ Office
  - when signing the certificates and
  - when discussing the deaths with physicians, physician office staff and the families of the deceased.
Each death investigated by the Coroner’s Office should have a report detailing the investigators findings and conclusions.
Publishing annual reports, special suicide reports and drug-related death reports.
- Types of reports are important for statistical analyses, research and for public information use.
The performance of autopsies is probably one of the most important aspects of any Coroner’s Office.
- It is the offices responsibility to ensure the autopsies are conducted in a quality manner and follow all the national standards with timely completion of autopsy results and autopsy reports.
Autopsies are conducted locally in Mesa County.
- Using local Mesa County citizens as employees.
- Using local facilities for the performance of autopsies and laboratory studies.
- Using local board-certified pathologists.