(a) The Chief Medical Examiner shall investigate all human deaths in the following categories: (1) Violent deaths, whether apparently homicidal, suicidal or accidental, including but not limited to deaths due to thermal, chemical, electrical or radiational injury and deaths due to criminal abortion, whether apparently self-induced or not; (2) sudden or unexpected deaths not caused by readily recognizable disease; (3) deaths under suspicious circumstances; (4) deaths of persons whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea or otherwise disposed of so as to be thereafter unavailable for examination; (5) deaths related to disease resulting from employment or to accident while employed; (6) deaths related to disease which might constitute a threat to public health; and (7) any other death, not clearly the result of natural causes, that occurs while the deceased person is in the custody of a peace officer or a law enforcement agency or the Commissioner of Correction. The Chief Medical Examiner may require autopsies in connection with deaths in the preceding categories when it appears warranted for proper investigation and, in the opinion of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, an associate medical examiner or an authorized assistant medical examiner, an autopsy is necessary. The autopsy shall be performed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner or by a designated pathologist at a community hospital. Where indicated, the autopsy shall include toxicologic, histologic, microbiologic and serologic examinations. If a medical examiner has reason to suspect that a homicide has been committed, the autopsy shall be performed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner or by a designated pathologist in the presence of at least one other designated pathologist if such other pathologist is immediately available. A detailed description of the findings of all autopsies shall be written or dictated during their progress. The findings of the investigation at the scene of death, the autopsy and any toxicologic, histologic, serologic and microbiologic examinations and the conclusions drawn therefrom shall be filed in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

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(b) The Chief Medical Examiner shall designate pathologists who are certified by the Department of Public Health to perform autopsies in connection with the investigation of any deaths in the categories listed in subsection (a) of this section. Any deputy chief state’s attorney, state’s attorney or assistant state’s attorney, including from the Office of the Inspector General pursuant to section 51-277e, shall have the right to require an autopsy by a pathologist so designated in any case in which there is a suspicion that death resulted from a criminal act. The official requiring said autopsy shall make a reasonable effort to notify whichever one of the following persons, eighteen years of age or older, assumes custody of the body for purposes of burial: Father, mother, husband, wife, child, guardian, next of kin, friend or any person charged by law with the responsibility for burial, that said autopsy has been required, however performance of said autopsy need not be delayed pending such notice.

(c) If there are no other circumstances which would appear to require an autopsy and if the investigation of the circumstances and examination of the body enable the Chief Medical Examiner, the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, an associate medical examiner or an authorized assistant medical examiner to conclude with reasonable certainty that death occurred from natural causes or obvious traumatic injury, the medical examiner in charge shall certify the cause of death and file a report of his findings in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.