Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 36.24 - County Coroner.
36.24.155 - Undisposed of remains—Entrusting to funeral homes or mortuaries—Indigenous persons remains.

RCW 36.24.155
Undisposed of remains—Entrusting to funeral homes or mortuaries—Indigenous persons remains.

(1) Whenever anyone shall die within a county without making prior plans for the disposition of his or her body and there is no other person willing to provide for the disposition of the body, the county coroner shall cause such body to be entrusted to a funeral home in the county where the body is found. Except in counties where the county coroner or medical examiner has established a preferred funeral home using a qualified bidding process, disposition shall be on a rotation basis, which shall treat equally all funeral homes or mortuaries desiring to participate, such rotation to be established by the coroner after consultation with representatives of the funeral homes or mortuaries in the county or counties involved.
(2)(a) The county coroner, upon knowledge that a body is of an indigenous person, shall make reasonable efforts to identify and contact family members prior to entrusting the body to a funeral home, including an attempt to facilitate contact through the regional liaison for missing and murdered indigenous persons pursuant to RCW 43.43.874 within 10 days of the county coroner having jurisdiction over the remains.
(b) Upon the written request of a family member responsible for the disposition of the body of an indigenous person, the county coroner shall provide a written estimate of the time frame for entrusting the body to the family member or the family member's chosen funeral home, unless doing so would jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation.

[ 2022 c 251 § 2; 2011 c 16 § 1; 2009 c 549 § 4038; 1969 ex.s. c 259 § 2.]
NOTES:

Human remains that have not been disposed: RCW 68.50.230.

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