In McKean County     Departments   Employees   Announcements  Calendar  Meetings   Development Areas  Surveys

McKean County Coroner's Office

Employees:
6 total part-time non-bargaining, non-civil Service (Coroner, Chief Deputy Coroner-per call; 4 Deputy Coroners-per call) (2 additional Deputy Coroners - pending appointment) 

Department Structure:
All Coroner-related matters are reposed to Michael F. Cahill, McKean County Coroner, who will conduct and or supervise all death investigations in McKean County. lf he is unable or unavailable, all coroner-related matters are to be reported to his Chief Deputy, who will ad in his capacity. All deputies will report and be supervised by the McKean County Coroner, or in his absence, his Chief Deputy. (see organizational chart)

Duties and Responsibilities:
The coroner, having a view of the body, shall investigate the facts and circumstances concerning deaths which appear to have happened within the county, regardless of where the cause of those have occurred, for the purpose of determining whether or not an autopsy should be conducted or an inquest should be had, in the following cases:

Duties:
a) Sudden deaths not caused by readily recognizable disease, or wherein the cause cannot be properly certified by a physician on a basis of prior or recent medical attendance
b) Deaths occurring under suspicious circumstances, including those where alcohol, drugs or other toxic substances may have had a direct bearing on the outcome
c) Deaths occurring as a result of violence or trauma, whether apparently homicidal, suicidal or accidental (including, but not limited to, those due to mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical or radiational injury, drowning, cave-ins, and subsidence)
d) Any death which trauma, chemical injury, drug overdose or reaction to drugs or medication or medical treatment was a primary or secondary, direct or indirect, contributory, aggravating or precipitating cause of death

e) Operative and pert-operative deaths in which the death is not readily explainable on the basis of prior disease
f) Any death where the body is unidentified or unclaimed
g) Deaths known or suspected as due to contagious disease and constituting a public hazard
h) Deaths occurring in prison or a penal institution or while in the custody of the police
i) Deaths of a person whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea, or otherwise disposed of, so as to be thereafter unavailable for examination
j) Sudden infant death syndrome and stillbirths

The purpose of the investigation shall be to determine the cause of any such death and to determine whether or not there is sufficient reason for the coroner to believe that any such death may have resulted from criminal ads or criminal nested of persons other than the deceased. As part of this investigation, the coroner shall determine the identity of the deceased and notify the next of kin of the deceased.

Responsibilities:
a) Establish procedures for notification to the Coroner of deaths that may require investigation
b) Keep record of all deaths reported to include: name, age, date and time notified, by whom, probable cause of death and disposition
c) Keep record of all deaths reported to include: name, address, date of birth, date of death, location, and cause of death, manner of death and all other pertinent fads about the investigation
d) Establish a method for the assignment of death investigations to either the Coroner or a Deputy
e) Establish and maintain contact with medical facilities, physicians, dentists, nursing homes, home health care workers, police, fire, EMS agencies, federal correction facilities, local sheriff and police agencies, local registrars and funeral homes within the county to ensure that deaths are appropriately referred to the coroner for investigation
f) Establish and maintain contact with pathologists and forensic pathologists to ensure availability of service when the need for autopsy arises
g) Establish guidelines for the determination of the need for an autopsy and/or toxicology in a death investigation and program to ensure that these procedures are completed
h) Maintain records and receipts for all personal effects found on or with a body and their disposition to the next of kin
i) Consult and cooperate with the District Attorney's office and police officers involved in investigations concerning a death
j) Conduct training for all deputies regarding this office's procedures and the laws regarding the Coroner's office, as well as death investigations; take advantage of courses of instruction made available through other agencies
k) Establish procedures for the release of information regarding a death investigation, whether at the time of investigation or later release of reports
l) Establish a procedure for the timely completion of death certificates and the timely preparation of reports concerning a death investigation
m) Maintain an index system to facilitate retrieval of records of death investigations after completion of reports

Mission Statement:
No greater honor will ever be bestowed on an officer or a more profound duty imposed on him than when he is entrusted with the investigation of the death of a human being. It is his duty to find the facts, regardless of color or creed, without prejudice, and to let no power on earth deter him from presenting these fads to the court without regard to personality.

Internal Departments:
McKean County District Attorney, McKean County Sheriff's Office, McKean County Controller's Office, McKean County 91 1 Center, McKean County emergency Management Systems, McKean County Adult Probation Department, McKean County Juvenile Probation Department, McKean County Children and Youth Services Agency, McKean County Commissioner's Office, McKean County Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts Office

External Agencies/Organizations:
All police departments of McKean County, all fire departments of McKean County, all ambulance service providers of McKean County, YWCA Victims' Resource Center, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Department of Criminal Justice, all medical doctors in McKean County, all medical providers of McKean County residents outside of McKean County, Twin Tiers Diving Team, Allegany State Park Police (NY), Olean (NY) City Police, Cattaraugus County (NY) Sheriff's Office, Erie County (PA, NY) Coroner's Office, all PA State Coroner's Offices and Dist. 2 Coroners Association, Federal Correction Institution of McKean County, Pennsylvania State Police, PA State Police Fire Investigation Team, PA State Police Crime Lab of Punxsutawney, PA State Police Explosives Detection Team, PA State Game Commission, PA Deputy Wildlife Conservation Officers, PA Department of Fish and Wildlife, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Health Bureau of Labs, PA Department of Transportation and Highway Safety and Traffic Engineering, PA Department of HeaIth (Bradford and PA offices), PA Department of Health and Vital Statistics, PA Department of Health for Maternal Death, PA Department of Probation and Parole, PA Department of the American Academy of Pediatrics, PA Dental Association for Forensic Odonotology, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, American Society of Clinical Pathologists for SIDS, Institute on Older Adult Protective Services, PA Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General Narcotics Agent, United States Consumer Products Safety Commission, United States Department of Agriculture Forestry Service-Bradford Ranger District, Federal Bureau of Investigation office (Erie, PA), Federal Bureau of Investigation-special Investigations, Federal Aviation Administration, PA Department of Humanity Gifts Registry, Aftermath Inc.

hosting, web site, and web application design by protocol 80, Inc.