The coroner is elected for a four-year term and is charged with the responsibility of investigating deaths from unknown or violent causes, and deaths that occur while unattended by a physician.

The coroner is also charged with holding inquests, assisting law enforcement agencies with investigations, locating, advising, and counseling with families of the deceased and maintaining an up-to-date and complete record system on each case, and when necessary, the responsibility of transporting bodies to and from the Medical Examiner's Lab in Atlanta for autopsy.

The Coroner's Office will remain diligent in our effort to seek the truth, establish accurate conclusions, produce prompt reports and function with integrity and compassion in all aspects of our specialized professional expertise and dedicate ourselves to continuous progress towards excellence.

Pauper burials

We would also like to add that any pauper cremains can be purchased from the city for $600. Certain criteria have to be met to be approved for pauper status: no insurance, deceased was receiving govt. subsidies or entitlements or their is no available family to handle funeral arrangements. If it is later discovered that the family had insurance or funds and used pauper services anyway they will have to reimburse the city all monies used for the burial/ cremation.

Our office does not offer obituaries for pauper funerals. They can be purchased through any newspaper with authorization from our office at the expense of the family.

Education

The coroner's office offers classes/ speaking engagements to organizations, schools and events on subjects like: child safety, SIDS and SUIDS, suicide and homicide rates, etc. to promote community involvement and death prevention.

Public Records

Open records requests must be made in writing and forwarded to our office for review. All requests must be paid in full before reports can be released and no reports can be sent electronically. No reports can be released on active or on going cases.

We do offer a limited search at our Reports Query page. For anything more specific, please reach out to our office.

Located at:

Muscogee County Coroner's Office
Public Safety Building
510 10th Street                         directions
Columbus, Georgia 31901

Established 2006

Last updated: March 2, 2017