Help PROCESS AFTER DEATH

[Fire&Ash]

Hi, what happens after a person body is found? Say, I parked my car somewhere far and ctb in my car. Would a stranger find me? Should I call the police and have them collect my body? I want to be found by a professional not a stranger.
1)How is my body collected? Is it in an ambulance and taken to a hospital?
2) should I have ID on me? An emergency number? No emergency number? I don't want my family to be asked to identify me
3) how can I plan a funeral ahead of my death?
4) how is my death certificate processed and who does it? Can the state do it? I don't want t family to have to do it.

Just the whole process of legal things and funeral how do it do it all

 

[symphony]

It's a lot of work and planning. A LOT, especially if you have assets and a family.

It's part of the reason I am still here. For as much as I have done, I'm not even close to having everything as perfect and organized as I want it to be. It will still be devastating for them. But I'm doing my best to ease the burden on my spouse.

Unattended deaths will involve LE and emergency services. If you are not at home, someone will need to identify you. If you are using a method that could be dangerous to those who find you (carbon monoxide) PLEASE alert LE via a note or something so no one else is hurt. Count on an autopsy. I hate that I will have to have one, but it's going to happen.

You can preplan and pay for your funeral, church services and so forth. You will have to meet with funeral homes to do this, and there's paperwork. The funeral home director will provide your family with death certificates (I'd order at least 10) so they can settle your affairs.

If you have any sort of reasonable estate, you need a will, possibly trusts. Depending on your situation, retaining a lawyer to do this is a good idea.

Do as much as you can beforehand to ease the burden on your family after. That is my plan. I can't be cured and my life is over but I want THEIR lives to go on and for them to be as okay as possible.

Wow, this is great info, I had no idea. Thank you for sharing. I'm saving this for future reference.

 

[ameliacecelia]

Readysteady's post was very thorough and informative. Keep in mind that the bare minimum for a funeral us 6-7k usd. I'm trying to leave instructions for my family to make that process as easy, simple, and cheap as possible. I hope my mother will be able to close out my bank account and 401ks with my death certificate. I'm hoping there won't be any form if probate for medical and other debts.

 

[CrazyNihilist]

Hi, what happens after a person body is found? Say, I parked my car somewhere far and ctb in my car. Would a stranger find me? Should I call the police and have them collect my body? I want to be found by a professional not a stranger.
1)How is my body collected? Is it in an ambulance and taken to a hospital?
2) should I have ID on me? An emergency number? No emergency number? I don't want my family to be asked to identify me
3) how can I plan a funeral ahead of my death?
4) how is my death certificate processed and who does it? Can the state do it? I don't want t family to have to do it.

Just the whole process of legal things and funeral how do it do it all

Assuming you are in the USA since you mentioned State. I am a former cop in Colorado and handled these things. You'd likely be found by a stranger that calls the police to investigate. Police and EMS will gain entry to the vehicle and confirm you are actually dead or transport you to the hospital if not. Then the county coroner will come out to collect the body and take it to a morgue which may or may not be in a hospital. They'll go through the car and your clothes for ID or anything indicating next of kin. This is the shitty part as a cop, you get to go knock on the address to tell the family you are dead. Family can then get a copy of the death certificate from the coroner and tell them which mortuary to send your body to. They will need someone to positively ID the body which will fall on a family member usually.

Do the police a favor. Have your ID on you and perhaps a note on who to contact first upon your death. If you have no family, say that in the note and the State will deal with it. Save's the police time in trying to chase down people. Also, BRAVO to the person who suggested to leave a note if it's an unsafe crime scene. Very helpful to know if the car is full of CO or some other gas. Also, if you use a firearm, just put one bullet in. That's all you need and the weapon is safe afterwards. If people untrained in firearms find the weapon, the potential for accidental discharge is very high. Do what you can to keep others from getting hurt when handling the mess.

Readysteady's post was very thorough and informative. Keep in mind that the bare minimum for a funeral us 6-7k usd. I'm trying to leave instructions for my family to make that process as easy, simple, and cheap as possible. I hope my mother will be able to close out my bank account and 401ks with my death certificate. I'm hoping there won't be any form if probate for medical and other debts.

You can leave your body to science for free in many USA States. They will even cremate the remains when they are done and return them to your family. Very affordable if you don;t have religious objections to that method. Your family also get to avoid the funeral home vultures who try to oversell you on everything. Who really needs a fancier casket when no one will ever see it after the service.

 

[Fire&Ash]

Assuming you are in the USA since you mentioned State. I am a former cop in Colorado and handled these things. You'd likely be found by a stranger that calls the police to investigate. Police and EMS will gain entry to the vehicle and confirm you are actually dead or transport you to the hospital if not. Then the county coroner will come out to collect the body and take it to a morgue which may or may not be in a hospital. They'll go through the car and your clothes for ID or anything indicating next of kin. This is the shitty part as a cop, you get to go knock on the address to tell the family you are dead. Family can then get a copy of the death certificate from the coroner and tell them which mortuary to send your body to. They will need someone to positively ID the body which will fall on a family member usually.

Do the police a favor. Have your ID on you and perhaps a note on who to contact first upon your death. If you have no family, say that in the note and the State will deal with it. Save's the police time in trying to chase down people. Also, BRAVO to the person who suggested to leave a note if it's an unsafe crime scene. Very helpful to know if the car is full of CO or some other gas. Also, if you use a firearm, just put one bullet in. That's all you need and the weapon is safe afterwards. If people untrained in firearms find the weapon, the potential for accidental discharge is very high. Do what you can to keep others from getting hurt when handling the mess.

You can leave your body to science for free in many USA States. They will even cremate the remains when they are done and return them to your family. Very affordable if you don;t have religious objections to that method. Your family also get to avoid the funeral home vultures who try to oversell you on everything. Who really needs a fancier casket when no one will ever see it after the I don't want someone to contact my family to

Assuming you are in the USA since you mentioned State. I am a former cop in Colorado and handled these things. You'd likely be found by a stranger that calls the police to investigate. Police and EMS will gain entry to the vehicle and confirm you are actually dead or transport you to the hospital if not. Then the county coroner will come out to collect the body and take it to a morgue which may or may not be in a hospital. They'll go through the car and your clothes for ID or anything indicating next of kin. This is the shitty part as a cop, you get to go knock on the address to tell the family you are dead. Family can then get a copy of the death certificate from the coroner and tell them which mortuary to send your body to. They will need someone to positively ID the body which will fall on a family member usually.

Do the police a favor. Have your ID on you and perhaps a note on who to contact first upon your death. If you have no family, say that in the note and the State will deal with it. Save's the police time in trying to chase down people. Also, BRAVO to the person who suggested to leave a note if it's an unsafe crime scene. Very helpful to know if the car is full of CO or some other gas. Also, if you use a firearm, just put one bullet in. That's all you need and the weapon is safe afterwards. If people untrained in firearms find the weapon, the potential for accidental discharge is very high. Do what you can to keep others from getting hurt when handling the mess.

You can leave your body to science for free in many USA States. They will even cremate the remains when they are done and return them to your family. Very affordable if you don;t have religious objections to that method. Your family also get to avoid the funeral home vultures who try to oversell you on everything. Who really needs a fancier casket when no one will ever see it after the service.

Hello, thank you for answering some of the legal processes. What can I do to stop someone contacting a family member to identify my body? It will most likely fall on my older sister and I don't want to traumatize her. Is there a way I can simply leave my ID and any other personal info of mine enough for the coroner to just end the whole autopsy process and fill out my death certificate and leave it at that???

 

[NothingElseMatters]

Readysteady's post was very thorough and informative. Keep in mind that the bare minimum for a funeral us 6-7k usd. I'm trying to leave instructions for my family to make that process as easy, simple, and cheap as possible. I hope my mother will be able to close out my bank account and 401ks with my death certificate. I'm hoping there won't be any form if probate for medical and other debts.

You have 400k us and want to die. Wow.

 

[bluedream]

You have 400k us and want to die. Wow.

Don't ever judge or try to invalidate someone choice based on what they have or don't have. This is a pro choice site.

 

[ameliacecelia]

You have 400k us and want to die. Wow.

Lol. A 401K is a retirement account, typically sponsored by employers that they may also contribute to called a 'match but they rarely match the amount you contribute. At the time of enrollment, you can elect to have a set amount or percentage from your paycheck to go into your 401k account. It is then invested. So you may lose some of the value of your account based on the stock market. Someone else can probably explain it better than me. I take it you are not from the US. I do not have $400,000. I have 2 401ks with previous employers and do not have enough to cover funeral expenses. So I will be leaving instructions for things such as cremation to keep costs low. I will say, that in my physical condition, I would still want to die even if I had lots of money, but instead, I don't.

Don't ever judge or try to invalidate someone choice based on what they have or don't have. This is a pro choice site.

Thank you for this. I just explained what a 401k is and that it does not mean resources. And even so, money does not always equate to less suffering (though it does often mean more access to resources that could help treatment. I do wish I had more of that).

 

[CrazyNihilist]

Hello, thank you for answering some of the legal processes. What can I do to stop someone contacting a family member to identify my body? It will most likely fall on my older sister and I don't want to traumatize her. Is there a way I can simply leave my ID and any other personal info of mine enough for the coroner to just end the whole autopsy process and fill out my death certificate and leave it at that???

You could leave your ID and any will you may have created. Police would still notify next of kin, but it may keep the coroner from requiring a positive ID on the body (I stress may...many county coroners have policies they must follow and I wouldn;t be surprised if some require positive ID regardless). As for avoiding an autopsy, there is VERY little chance of this in the USA. It is viewed as an unattended death and police will investigate it as if it was a homicide. Coroners almost always do an autopsy to get blood toxicology and rule our suspicions circumstances where someone murders and tries making it look like a suicide. The autopsy is not something the family is involved with, but they likely won't be able to stop it even if there is a note and a will saying you don;t want that.

 

[archipelago]

You could leave your ID and any will you may have created. Police would still notify next of kin, but it may keep the coroner from requiring a positive ID on the body (I stress may...many county coroners have policies they must follow and I wouldn;t be surprised if some require positive ID regardless). As for avoiding an autopsy, there is VERY little chance of this in the USA. It is viewed as an unattended death and police will investigate it as if it was a homicide. Coroners almost always do an autopsy to get blood toxicology and rule our suspicions circumstances where someone murders and tries making it look like a suicide. The autopsy is not something the family is involved with, but they likely won't be able to stop it even if there is a note and a will saying you don;t want that.

I'm genuinely afraid to ask, but are they always invasive? I don't mind the tox screen (N is my method) but I hate the idea of it being much more than that. I know I'll have been gone by then but it feels like another violation of my body when I've had to endure that over and over again in life. It feels like I've jumped through all these hoops to get a peaceful death only to have my body violated again.

 

[Of The Universe]

Assuming you are in the USA since you mentioned State. I am a former cop in Colorado and handled these things. You'd likely be found by a stranger that calls the police to investigate. Police and EMS will gain entry to the vehicle and confirm you are actually dead or transport you to the hospital if not. Then the county coroner will come out to collect the body and take it to a morgue which may or may not be in a hospital. They'll go through the car and your clothes for ID or anything indicating next of kin. This is the shitty part as a cop, you get to go knock on the address to tell the family you are dead. Family can then get a copy of the death certificate from the coroner and tell them which mortuary to send your body to. They will need someone to positively ID the body which will fall on a family member usually.

Do the police a favor. Have your ID on you and perhaps a note on who to contact first upon your death. If you have no family, say that in the note and the State will deal with it. Save's the police time in trying to chase down people. Also, BRAVO to the person who suggested to leave a note if it's an unsafe crime scene. Very helpful to know if the car is full of CO or some other gas. Also, if you use a firearm, just put one bullet in. That's all you need and the weapon is safe afterwards. If people untrained in firearms find the weapon, the potential for accidental discharge is very high. Do what you can to keep others from getting hurt when handling the mess.

You can leave your body to science for free in many USA States. They will even cremate the remains when they are done and return them to your family. Very affordable if you don;t have religious objections to that method. Your family also get to avoid the funeral home vultures who try to oversell you on everything. Who really needs a fancier casket when no one will ever see it after the service.

What if you have no family or next of kin? Also,what if you just ctb,get found,and have made NO arrangements for burial? What do they do?

 

[Hercules]

What if you have no family or next of kin? Also,what if you just ctb,get found,and have made NO arrangements for burial? What do they do?

They would try to locate your next of kin and ask them to make arrangements. If you don't have any family or if your family won't pay for your burial, then the state will bury you in a common grave.