According to Louisiana Revised Statute 13:5713, the coroner shall either view the body or make an investigation into the cause and manner of death in all cases involving the following:

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• Suspicious, unexpected, or unusual deaths

• Sudden or violent deaths

• Deaths due to unknown or obscure causes or in any unusual manner

• Bodies found dead

• Deaths due to suspected suicide or homicide

• Deaths in which poison is suspected

• Any death from natural causes occurring in a hospital under twenty-four hours of admission

• Deaths following an injury or accident either old or recent

• Deaths due to drowning, hanging, burns, electrocution, gunshot wounds, stabs or cutting, lightning, starvation, radiation, exposure, alcoholism, addiction, tetanus, strangulation, suffocation, or smothering

• Deaths due to trauma from whatever cause

• Deaths due to criminal means or by casualty

• Deaths in prison or while serving a sentence

• Deaths due to virulent contagious disease that might be caused by or cause a public hazard, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome