Funeral Homes Perform Unlikely Role: Death Investigation

Kansas City recently changed important policies after funeral homes discovered tell-tale signs of unnatural deaths in bodies that were not autopsied and were reported as dying from natural causes.  The fact that funeral homes were performing roles that medical examiners were supposed to perform prompted a change that now requires medical examiners to go to the scene of deaths not occurring at a medical facility. 

For more information, see Christine Vendel, New policy sheds light on death investigations, Kansas City Star, May 30, 2009.