Medical Examiner

The Pinal County Medical Examiner's Office investigates sudden, violent, unexpected, and suspicious deaths that occur within the geographical boundaries of Pinal County. The Office of the Medical Examiner certifies death after an investigation, and in most cases, a postmortem examination is completed. The PCMEO is charged with issuing the cause and manner of death as required by law. Complete findings of the death investigation are distributed to families and law enforcement agencies as appropriate.

The main duties of the Office of the Medical Examiner are to confirm identification of the deceased, determine the cause and manner of death, and certify deaths that fall under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner. The cause of death is the disease process or injury that resulted in death. There are thousands of diseases and injuries that may result in death. The manner of death is a classification as to how the death occurred (natural causes, homicide, suicide, or an accident). On occasion, the manner of death is classified as undetermined. Under the authority of Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 11-593