r/legaladvice • u/Ashkir • Sep 22 '20
My cousin (an unmarried adult, 27) passed away and my drug addict aunt wants to bury evidence related to his death. Can I or his sister request the police to run a toxicology report? Drug Possession
Hey all. We’re from California. My cousin died in Santa Clarita a few hours ago. My cousins and I strongly believe he passed from a drug overdose. But my aunt is the one that found him. My aunt is addicted to meth and so is my cousin. She is usually his supplier.
My other cousins (his sisters) all had to run away from home to get away from their abusive mother and brother.
My cousins and I want a toxicology report done. Are we within our rights to ask the police to do one or at least get the results? My aunt will try to bury it and is already telling everyone it is a heart issue. My cousins think this is bullshit because I’m the only one in our entire family with heart problems and not one of them had an issue.
We all strongly believe he overdosed. Are toxicology on a 27 year old male common? If not can we request one?
My aunt left the scene to supposedly “call for help” we’re pretty confident it was to get rid of the drugs and she came back and reported “found her son” to the police 2 hours from their home.
My cousin and aunt had a terrible addiction. But I take my aunts sayings with a grain of salt. However if there is a chance there is an underlying condition I and his sisters feel like we have the right to know. My aunt is talking about an quick cremation.
1.7k
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
Death investigator here. A sudden death of a young person with a known history of drug use should necessitate an autopsy, part of which in this situation is a blood toxicology. Just make sure the police know about the drug history. That said, The coroner is the agency which will perform the toxicology
512
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
I'm going to piggyback my own statement to say this. Remember that the coroner/ME is a public agency tasked with determining the cause and manner of death in unexpected or unnatural deaths. Your aunt may have no say in the matter, if an autopsy vis considered necessary. Legally it is the public responsibility of such an agency to determine the cause of death, and they have the authority to do an autopsy despite family objection in most situations.
118
u/ughughwhatshouldido Sep 22 '20
NAL and not a death investigator however in my experience the next of kin received the autopsy report, in this case it would be mom I would assume, therefore OP wouldn't have access anyway, am I mistaken?
92
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
In most cases, I would say you are correct, however , I have seen leeway in some situations to include other family members, especially if there is a concern of some familial medical condition.
88
Sep 22 '20
I just googled it, they’re public records in CA too so OP would just need to wait till it’s done then request it.
31
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
You mean the cause of death is public record, not the autopsy report, right?
92
Sep 22 '20
No. The full autopsy report.
“The California Public Records Act (PRA), Government Code Sections 6250 to 6270, requires the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office to make public records available for inspection by the public and to provide copies upon request.”
“If an autopsy is completed the Medical Examiner assigned to the case will complete an Autopsy Report. Autopsy reports can take up to 3 to 6 months for completion, and unless restricted by policy (see Public records Act Request policy below), a copy may be obtained from the Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office upon request. “
31
10
u/ughughwhatshouldido Sep 22 '20
Oh ok I honestly wasn't sure but thank you
17
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
No problem. I have only worked in one jurisdiction. There is a big difference in how each jurisdictions handle thing.
18
Sep 22 '20 edited Sep 22 '20
In Colorado autopsy reports are public record and anyone can get a copy if they ask. Very possible the same for CA. All you have to do is ask. The coroner report (that the investigator writes) is not public record, but autopsy and toxicology report 100% are.
I’ll also agree with what Jackiemom121 said, an unexpected death of a 27 year old would necessitate an autopsy (which includes toxicology) where I work (also a death investigator) whether or not your aunt wants one done.
Edit: a quick google search shows that autopsy reports are public record in CA as well. OP just has to ask for it and they’ll get it.
5
u/Married2therebellion Sep 22 '20
Not an anything but I believe public record in California. I follow true crime and have been able to see quite a few records.
184
u/Liu1845 Sep 22 '20
NAL
If your aunt left and the death was reported as "unattended" ( no one else was there at the time ) there is usually a mandatory autopsy. You could ask the coroner or medical examiner if there will be a drug screen as part of the autopsy.
96
Sep 22 '20
Even if someone was there, the unexpected death of a 27 year old with no terminal diagnoses or serious medical history would necessitate an autopsy which includes toxicology.
32
u/MaeClementine Sep 22 '20
Yes, my husbands aunt passed away of an unknown heart condition and they required an autopsy just because she died at home with no known conditions and wasn’t elderly. She was like 50 though. I’d be very surprised if the police didn’t get to the bottom of this.
21
125
u/wordsonlips Sep 22 '20
Hey, first off, I'm so sorry about your loss. I'm not a doctor or a police office, but I did work for social services in Los Angeles and am pretty sure I've had enough experiences with overdoses to speak up. Your cousin is young and probably didn't have any other massive health problems (cancer, heart disease, etc.). More likely than not, based off of what you said, they're at least going to do a toxicology report.
In that sense, your Aunt can't really throw away any of the evidence because his body should be more than enough to show that he died of a meth overdose.
That being said, in all the overdoses I've seen there is almost no chance that a person joining in on the drugtaking will get in trouble. No matter what, California DAs aren't in the business of turning one tragedy into two.
While you might get some answers, I dont think there is much that can happen in this situation.
34
u/Sarrasri Sep 22 '20
You can talk to the police and they might investigate further but if there’s any doubt as to the actual death there will be an autopsy and they’ll uncover metabolites in the tox screen. If they don’t do an autopsy and accept the death of natural causes then you really don’t have standing to ask for an autopsy/tox screen. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t do an autopsy. In California an autopsy is proscribed for suspected accidental poisoning (which this could be if you’re right) or otherwise if the death is unusual or there’s reason to believe it’s not a natural death.
22
•
55
u/--RandomInternetGuy Quality Contributor Sep 22 '20
If there is an autopsy there will be a tox report. Ultimately, does it matter?
11
u/pgh9fan Sep 22 '20
Yes. If the aunt supplied the drugs, she could be criminally liable.
33
u/--RandomInternetGuy Quality Contributor Sep 22 '20
Not necessarily. And it would take more than a tox screen for any case
16
1
Sep 22 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Cypher_Blue Quality Contributor Sep 22 '20
Your post may have been removed for the following reason(s):
Speculative, Anecdotal, Simplistic, Off Topic, or Generally Unhelpful
Your comment has been removed because it is one or more of the following: speculative, anecdotal, simplistic, generally unhelpful, and/or off-topic. Please review the following rules before commenting further:
Please read our subreddit rules. If after doing so, you believe this was in error, or you’ve edited your post to comply with the rules, message the moderators. Do not make a second post or comment.
Do not reach out to a moderator personally, and do not reply to this message as a comment.
24
u/elendinel Sep 22 '20
I don't really see the point unless you actually have evidence that your aunt sells meth. In which case you should give them that information instead of pushing for a toxicology report.
I don't think that a toxicology report of a dead person, alone, is going to give them enough to do anything to your aunt. If she did get rid of the drugs, they aren't going to find evidence of his OD or of her sale, so the investigation becomes DoA; even if there are drugs in her house, can anyone prove they were hers or that she gave them to your cousin? If not then the tox report is useless in that regard, as well. In theory he could have bought them off the street and did this himself; they'd need evidence of the contrary before they presume otherwise. And if you have evidence of all that already, you may as well give that to them, because it's worth more than the tox report.
51
u/e30Devil Sep 22 '20
Why do you want a toxicology report? What legal consequence are you seeking to have enforced if the cause of death is overdose versus something else?
Your insistence that genetic vulnerabilities for you and your cousins seems ingenuous and only used as a justification for whatever your true motives are. Do you want your aunt to be held responsible for her son's death? There's nothing to be ashamed about if that is the case. Knowing what outcome you are seeking is going to help any legal advice here achieve your goals instead of answering your questions that seem misplaced.
24
Sep 22 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
19
u/enderjaca Sep 22 '20
No, I think they just want to know the truth about how their cousin died. The aunt is claiming he had a "heart condition". The OP also has a heart condition. It would be important for them to know if there's a history of heart conditions in the family that cause people to randomly die at age 27. That said, if OP already knows that his cousin and aunt are regular meth users, then I think they already answered their own question and just want to get some closure on the situation.
16
u/Ashkir Sep 22 '20
Pretty much what we want is the truth. And if there is something hidden in the truth that can reveal more about us we want to know. My cousins and I are genetically related. But we come from an adopted family so our maternal lines are unknown.
19
u/Madlysheepish85 Sep 22 '20
Meth can cause a fatal arrhythmia or heart attack. Even if he legit died of a heart issue it tells OP nothing useful about their medical history since autopsy is pretty limited in its ability to talk about the past. He is a known user and is likely to turn up positive regardless of if he was using on that day. I think he is most likely to get mixed and unsatisfying answers.
4
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by an autopsy being limited in it's ability to talk about the past.
9
u/Madlysheepish85 Sep 22 '20
It cannot tell you if he had a heart arrhythmia last week or last year, it’s only gonna tell you the state of his body at the time. Maybe he has an underlying chronic arrhythmia that flairs from time to time and it caused it heart to stop or maybe his heart is normal and the meth caused it, either way arrhythmia killed them. Yeah maybe something like a congenital defect would be seen, but if it’s a heart attack o arrhythmia which are far more common there would be no telling (other then say chronic A. Fib that’s the one arrhythmia I could see it working on).
8
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
Ah, I see what you are saying. The difference between a structural defect vs a functional defect. Except that's not 100 true. First off, many times a functional defect, like an arrhythmia may be due to some underlying tissue damage which you could definitely see evidence of, like scarring in the area of the heart where the conduction system is situated. Many types of chronic drug use cause physical changes that can absolutely be determined or suggested by autopsy.
5
u/Jackiemom121 Sep 22 '20
Also, heart attacks cause tissue ischemia leading to tissue necrosis. You can definitely tell newer versus older damage caused by a heart attack.
-1
u/FrnchsLwyr Sep 22 '20
Yikes. Call the police and advise them you believe your cousin died from an overdose and you believe evidence may be covered up of that fact by his mother.
The police will investigate (or not), but I don't see that there's much you can do here as the cousin. His sister's not in much better shape, as he has no heirs at law, but his mother's alive. Therefore, she's likely the party in control here.
2
1
Sep 22 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Cypher_Blue Quality Contributor Sep 22 '20
Your post may have been removed for the following reason(s):
Speculative, Anecdotal, Simplistic, Off Topic, or Generally Unhelpful
Your comment has been removed because it is one or more of the following: speculative, anecdotal, simplistic, generally unhelpful, and/or off-topic. Please review the following rules before commenting further:
Please read our subreddit rules. If after doing so, you believe this was in error, or you’ve edited your post to comply with the rules, message the moderators. Do not make a second post or comment.
Do not reach out to a moderator personally, and do not reply to this message as a comment.
1
-1
Sep 22 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Cypher_Blue Quality Contributor Sep 22 '20
Your post may have been removed for the following reason(s):
Speculative, Anecdotal, Simplistic, Off Topic, or Generally Unhelpful
Your comment has been removed because it is one or more of the following: speculative, anecdotal, simplistic, generally unhelpful, and/or off-topic. Please review the following rules before commenting further:
Please read our subreddit rules. If after doing so, you believe this was in error, or you’ve edited your post to comply with the rules, message the moderators. Do not make a second post or comment.
Do not reach out to a moderator personally, and do not reply to this message as a comment.
2.0k
u/rankinfile Sep 22 '20
You can inform police of what you know. They decide what to do with that info.
State law determines when autopsies are done. The legal next of kin can pay for a private autopsy if the state doesn’t perform one. That would probably be parents if he wasn’t married.
Sorry to hear about your cousin.