Coroners investigate:
- Homicides;
- Suicides;
- Crashes;
- Death by natural causes;
- Inmate deaths or cases in which cause of death originated while deceased was incarcerated;
- Deaths caused by diseases that may be public health threats;
- Deaths of people whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea, transported out of state or otherwise unavailable for pathological study; and
- Deaths of transplant surgery donors that are the result of some type of trauma.
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The vast majority of coroner investigations are natural deaths, including situations in which there is no attending physician to sign the death certificate, sudden or unexpected deaths, or cases involving alcohol or other drugs of abuse.