Coroner's Office

Coroner: Brian Clark

101 South Main Street
New Castle, Indiana 47362

Phone: (765) 465-0908

Email: bclark@henrycounty.in.gov
 

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Henry County Coroner's Office is to excel in providing a service to all persons in Henry County who fall as victims of death through a strong commitment in providing progressive, highly trained, and properly equiped personnel.


What are the requirements to become a coroner?

As with all other constitutionally elected officers, one need to be an elector of the county, and a resident for one year in order to be elected. The coroner does not perform autopsies (unless he or she is also a board-certified pathologist).

The coroner is an administrator above all else. By living locally and being elected, the corner is answerable to the people. The coroner has innumerable experts to call upon to help them render a decision. The Indiana State Coroners Training Board has been established and funded to provide 40 hours of basic training and 16 hours of annual continuing education for coroners to assist them in the administration of their duties, and establish mandatory training leading to certification.

What are the requirements to become a deputy coroner?

A deputy Coroner is an appointed or hired position by the coroner. Which after they are appointed or hired, they must attend a 40-hour Medicolegal Death Investigators Course and become certified in the state of Indiana within one (1) year of appointment.

How to take the 40-hour Medicolegal Death Investigation Training

In order to attend the 40-hour Medicolegal Death Investigators training you must be a duly elected coroner or appointed or hired deputy coroner.

What are the duties of your county coroner?

Duties of the coroner include:

1. IDENTIFICATION of the deceased;
2. Determination of the CAUSE of death; and
3. Determination of the MANNER of death.

IDENTIFICATION may be as easy as having a family member at the scene when you get there or as difficult as having only a few bones to work with and having to utilize one of the many experts available to your coroner.

CAUSE of death is the final factor or event that happened to the deceased. If this had not happened, the individual would still be alive. This may be a cascade of factors or events, one following the other and this will be reflected on the death certificate that your coroner files with the county health department

As an example:
A. asphyxia (inability to breathe), due to
B. chest compression, due to
C. settling of automobile, due to
D. failure of jacking apparatus.

This group of factors is referred to as the mechanism, which lead to the asphyxia, which is the cause of death.

MANNER of death is a descriptive grouping. It is, however, a firmly set, universally accepted acknowledgement of how people die. These possibilities are:
A. homicide;
B. suicide;
C. accident;
D. natural; and
E. undetermined.

CORONER INVESTIGATIONS

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.

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.

Links:
http://www.in.gov/ctb/2331.htm
http://www.indcoroners.org
http://www.thename.org