Chap. 366.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 4806, as heretofore amended,
of the Code of Virginia, relating to coroners’ inquests. [H B 469]

Approved March 30, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That
section forty-eight hundred and six, as heretofore amended, of the
Code of Virginia, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
Section 4806. Coroner to be notified of any sudden, violent, un-
natural or suspicious death, or death without medical attendance.—It
shall be the duty of the physician, undertaker, or other person in
attendance, to notify the coroner of any sudden, violent, unnatural
or suspicious death, or a death without medical attendance, and upon
notice of such a death, the coroner of the city of Richmond, if the
dead body be in the penitentiary, and in any other case the coroner
of the county or corporation in which the dead body is, shall view the
body and make inquiry into the circumstances of the said death, and
after an inquiry had, as aforesaid, if facts are revealed sufficient to
create in the mind of the said coroner a reasonable belief that the
person whose body he shall have been called to view came to his or
her death by murder or manslaughter, or by the contrivance, aiding,
procuring, or other misconduct of any person or persons, he shall fix
a time and place for a hearing to determine when, how, and by what
means the said person came to his death; provided, however, no such
hearing or inquest shall be held and no autopsy shall be performed
unless and until the same be requested by either the Commonwealth's
attorney, or the judge of the circuit or corporation court, of the
county or corporation wherein such dead body be.