South Carolina § 17-5-555 Reporting certain deaths of vulnerable adults.

South Carolina Statutes

§ 17-5-555 — Reporting certain deaths of vulnerable adults.

South Carolina § 17-5-555

Title 17CRIMINAL PROCEDURES

Ch. 5CORONERS AND MEDICAL EXAMINERS

This text of South Carolina § 17-5-555 (Reporting certain deaths of vulnerable adults.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

S.C. Code Ann. § 17-5-555 (2026).

Text

(A)The coroner or medical examiner, within twenty- four hours or one working day, whichever occurs first, must notify the Vulnerable Adults Investigations Unit of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division or appropriate law enforcement when a vulnerable adult dies in the county he serves:

(1)as a result of violence, when unattended by a physician, and in any suspicious or unusual manner; or (2) when the death is unexpected and unexplained.

(B)If the home or premises last inhabited by a vulnerable adult is not the scene of the death of the vulnerable adult, the coroner or medical examiner, while conducting an investigation of the death, may petition the local magistrate of the appropriate judicial circuit for a warrant to inspect the home or premises inhabited by the deceased before de

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(A) The coroner or medical examiner, within twenty- four hours or one working day, whichever occurs first, must notify the Vulnerable Adults Investigations Unit of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division or appropriate law enforcement when a vulnerable adult dies in the county he serves: (1) as a result of violence, when unattended by a physician, and in any suspicious or unusual manner; or (2) when the death is unexpected and unexplained. (B) If the home or premises last inhabited by a vulnerable adult is not the scene of the death of the vulnerable adult, the coroner or medical examiner, while conducting an investigation of the death, may petition the local magistrate of the appropriate judicial circuit for a warrant to inspect the home or premises inhabited by the deceased before death. The local magistrate must issue the inspection warrant upon probable cause to believe that events in the home or premises may have contributed to the death of the vulnerable adult. (C) For purposes of this section: (1) "vulnerable adult" has the same meaning as defined in Section 43-35-10(11); (2) a vulnerable adult is not considered to be "unattended by a physician" when a physician has, before death, provided diagnosis and treatment following a fatal injury; (3) "unexpected death" includes all vulnerable adult deaths that, before investigation, appear possibly to have been caused by trauma, suspicious, or obscure circumstances, or abuse or neglect.