Description

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This is a presentation and discussion on the statutes, policies, and procedures applicable to coroners in the State of Wyoming. While the policies of any one county may not always apply to another, the basics of law, statute, and procedural obligations are consistent. Application can be of many flavors, but the requirements of law are the same. Trying to ferret out and coordinate all the various aspects of law and how it affects the position of the coroner, can be both arduous and confusing, if not often surprising, especially for those new to the position. Hopefully this text will fill some of that gap in resource and help avoid some of the common pitfalls. No text can be 100% coverage, and even if it were, expect the legislature or some other agency to throw a change or monkey wrench into the works at some point. Such is the nature of government, so it pays to be prepared.

About the Author

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Mark R. Stratmoen is currently the Coroner for Fremont County, Wyoming, and has been a certified death investigator since 1998. Before taking office in 2015, he also served as department administrator from 2004 to 2014, and as Chief Deputy from 2007 to 2014. Service also included being a member of DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) under the Federal National Disaster Medical Service, Department of Health and Human Services, with deployment to work Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area in 2005. Aside from the over 650 hours of State certified medical-legal training acquired up to this point, working in this area of Wyoming has involved experience in high altitude mountain recoveries, desert and remote area recoveries; air crash, fire incident, and water recoveries and investigations; vehicle collisions and traffic fatalities; industrial incidents; archaeological and anthropological recoveries and investigations; medical facility investigations; and the usual expected array of natural, accidental, homicide, and suicide deaths. This includes being the lead investigator on over 600 cases, including the lead on over 220 non-natural deaths. He is also the author of "Murder, Mayhem, and Mystery: Coroner Inquests in Fremont County, Wyoming 1885-1900", (c) 2010 Mark R. Stratmoen, Pub. Lenore Wyoming Publications, ISBN-10: 146362932X; and "Finding Undetermined: Hard cases for Coroners and Death Investigators", (c) 2017 Mark R. Stratmoen, Pub. Lenore Wyoming Publications, ISBN-10: 197431376X