To repeal sections 58.451 and 58.720, RSMo 1994, relating to duties of coroners, and to enact two new sections relating to the same subject.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI,

AS FOLLOWS:

Section A. Sections 58.451 and 58.720, RSMo 1994, are repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 58.451 and 58.720, to read as follows:

58.451. 1. When any person, in any county in which a coroner is required by section 58.010, dies and there is reasonable ground to believe that such person died as a result of:

(1) Violence by homicide, suicide, or accident;

(2) Criminal abortions, including those self-induced;

(3) Some unforeseen sudden occurrence and the deceased had not been attended by a physician during the thirty-six-hour period preceding the death;

(4) In any unusual or suspicious manner;

(5) Any injury or illness while in the custody of the law or while an inmate in a public institution;

then the police, sheriff, law enforcement officer or official, or any person having knowledge of such a death shall immediately notify the coroner of the known facts concerning the time, place, manner and circumstances of the death. Immediately upon receipt of notification, the coroner or his deputy shall take charge of the dead body and fully investigate the essential facts concerning the medical causes of death, including whether by the act of man, and the manner of death. He may take the names and addresses of witnesses to the death and shall file this information in his office. The coroner or his deputy shall take possession of all property of value found on the body, making exact inventory of such property on his report and shall direct the return of such property to the person entitled to its custody or possession. The coroner or his deputy shall take possession of any object or article which, in his opinion, may be useful in establishing the cause of death, and deliver it to the prosecuting attorney of the county.

2. When a death occurs outside a licensed health care facility, the first licensed medical professional or law enforcement official learning of such death shall contact the county coroner. Immediately upon receipt of such notification, the coroner or the coroner's deputy shall make the determination if further investigation is necessary, based on information provided by the individual contacting the coroner, and immediately advise such individual of the coroner's intentions.

3. Upon taking charge of the dead body and before moving the body the coroner shall notify the police department of any city in which the dead body is found, or if the dead body is found in the unincorporated area of a county governed by the provisions of sections 58.451 to 58.457, the coroner shall notify the county sheriff and the highway patrol and cause the body to remain unmoved until the police department, sheriff or the highway patrol has inspected the body and the surrounding circumstances and carefully noted the appearance, the condition and position of the body and recorded every fact and circumstance tending to show the cause and manner of death, with the names and addresses of all known witnesses, and shall subscribe the same and make such record a part of his report.

[3.] 4. In any case of sudden, violent or suspicious death after which the body was buried without any investigation or autopsy, the coroner, upon being advised of such facts, may at his own discretion request that the prosecuting attorney apply for a court order requiring the body to be exhumed.

[4.] 5. The coroner shall certify the cause of death in any case under his charge when a physician is unavailable to sign a certificate of death.

[5.] 6. When the cause of death is established by the coroner, he shall file a copy of his findings in his office within thirty days.

[6.] 7. If on view of the dead body and after personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death, the coroner determines that a further examination is necessary in the public interest, the coroner on his