AN ACT Relating to coroners and medical examiners regarding death investigations; and amending RCW 68.50.050 and 68.50.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1.  RCW 68.50.050 and 2011 c 96 s 48 are each amended to read as follows:

Any person, not authorized or directed by the coroner or ((his or her)) their deputies, who ((removes the body of a deceased person not claimed by a relative or friend, or who came to their death by reason of violence or from unnatural causes or where there shall exist reasonable grounds for the belief that such death has been caused by unlawful means at the hands of another)) moves, disturbs, molests, or interferes with the human remains coming within the jurisdiction of the coroner or medical examiner as provided in RCW 68.50.010, to any undertaking rooms or elsewhere, or any person who directs, aids or abets such moving, disturbing, molesting, or taking, and any person who in any way conceals the ((body of a deceased person for the purpose of taking the same to any undertaking rooms or elsewhere, shall in each of said cases be guilty of a gross misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for up to three hundred sixty-four days or by both fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court)) human remains, is guilty of a gross misdemeanor in each such case.

Sec. 2.  RCW 68.50.020 and 1987 c 331 s 55 are each amended to read as follows:

It ((shall be)) is the duty of every person who knows of the existence and location of ((a dead body)) human remains coming under the jurisdiction of the coroner or medical examiner as set forth in RCW 68.50.010, to notify the coroner, medical examiner, or law enforcement thereof in the most expeditious manner possible, unless such person ((shall have)) has good reason to believe that such notice has already been given. Any person knowing of the existence of such ((dead body)) human remains and not having good reason to believe that the coroner or medical examiner has notice thereof and who ((shall)) fails to give such notice to the coroner ((as aforesaid, shall be)) or medical examiner, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

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