A. State, county or municipal officials having charge or control of a body of a dead person shall use due diligence to notify the relatives of the deceased.

B. If the decedent died while serving in any branch of the United States armed forces, the United States reserve forces or the national guard, during any period of duty when the secretary of the military service concerned can provide for the recovery, care and disposition of remains, and the decendent [decedent] completed a United States department of defense record of emergency data form or its successor form, the authority to direct the burial of the decedent or to provide other funeral and disposition arrangements for the decedent devolves on the person designated by the decedent pursuant to that form.

C. If no claimant is found who will assume the cost of burial, the official having charge or control of the body shall notify the medical investigator stating, when possible, the name, age, sex and cause of death of the deceased.

D. The body shall be embalmed according to rules of the state agency having jurisdiction. After the exercise of due diligence required in Subsection A of this section and the report to the medical investigator required in Subsection C of this section, the medical investigator shall be furnished detailed data demonstrating such due diligence and the fact that no claimant has been found. When the medical investigator has determined that due diligence has been exercised, that reasonable opportunity has been afforded relatives to claim the body and that the body has not been claimed, the medical investigator shall issue a certificate determining that the remains are unclaimed. In no case shall an unclaimed body be disposed of in less than two weeks from the date of the discovery of the body.

History: Laws 1941, ch. 148, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 71-501; 1953 Comp., § 12-7-1; reenacted by Laws 1973, ch. 354, § 1; 1977, ch. 204, § 1; 1999, ch. 241, § 1; 2011, ch. 22, § 1.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Cross references. — For medical investigations generally, see Chapter 24, Article 11 NMSA.

For burial of indigents generally, see Chapter 24, Article 13 NMSA 1978.

The 2011 amendment, effective June 17, 2011, authorized a person designated on a United States department of defense record of emergency data form to direct the disposition of the remains of a decedent who died while serving in the armed forces, reserve forces or national guard.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, in Subsection A, substituted "having charge or control of a body of a dead person" for "having charge or control of bodies to be buried at public expense"; and in Subsection B, substituted "sex and cause of death of the deceased" for "sex and cause of death of any person required to be buried at public expense".

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 22A Am. Jur. 2d Dead Bodies § 1 et seq.

Dead bodies: liability for improper manner of reinterment, 53 A.L.R.4th 394.

25A C.J.S. Dead Bodies § 1 et seq.