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Riverside County Sheriff / Coroner's Bureau
Riverside County Sheriff Coroner's Bureau investigates deaths within both city and county law enforcement jurisdictions. We work with officers and investigators from every enforcement arm in our county: sheriff, police, railroad police, campus police, state prisons and hospitals, border patrol and the California Highway Patrol. When a death occurs in our county involving an inmate at a prison or county detention facility or when a person dies by the hands of police or in a situation with police involvement, we immediately initiate an administrative investigation. (We can waive the investigation if death was expected from natural causes). This investigation parallels the death and criminal investigation and is done to ensure that all facets of the death are looked at by an expert panel of professionals. These reviews are done regardless of what city or law enforcement agency is involved.
These reviews are conducted in a thorough and rapid fashion to gather all the known facts of the death and present it to the Sheriff in a formal setting. The presenters are normally the Deputy Coroner, the Forensic Pathologist, and the Forensic Toxicologist with a summation by the Chief Deputy, Coroner's Bureau. Present are members of the Grand Jury, law enforcement agencies involved in the death and investigation, and representatives of the District Attorney's office. The presentation includes background concerning the decedents social history, criminal history, medical history and a time line of the events leading up to the death and the actions afterwards by police and investigators.
When all of the known facts have been presented to the Sheriff-Coroner and his staff, the Sheriff-Coroner issues the cause of death and classifies the manner of death as a homicide, suicide, accident, natural or undetermined death.
This review in no way hinders the family's ability to have a funeral. Upon completion of an autopsy, the body is released to the funeral home of choice, usually within 2-4 days from the date of death.
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