ORS 146.174 Medical examiner to provide information about unidentified human remains; identification

If a medical examiner is unable to determine the identity of human remains, the medical examiner shall, not later than 30 days after such remains are brought to the medical examiner’s attention, notify and provide to the Superintendent of State Police or the superintendent’s designee all information in the medical examiner’s records concerning the remains.

The medical examiner shall make reasonable attempts to promptly identify human remains and may consider procedures consistent with current forensic autopsy performance standards of the National Association of Medical Examiners. Reasonable attempts to identify human remains include, but are not limited to, obtaining:

Photographs of the remains prior to an autopsy;

Dental or skeletal X-rays of the remains;

Photographs of items found with the remains;

Fingerprints of the remains; and

Samples of tissue, bone or hair from the remains that are suitable for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis.

The medical examiner may not dispose of unidentified human remains, or take any action that materially affects the unidentified human remains, before the medical examiner completes the steps described in subsection (2) of this section.