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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{NCIS}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheCoroner_NCIS_7428.jpg]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:350:"Unlike the living, when the dead speak, they do not lie."]]-]

->''As coroner, I must aver,\\
I thoroughly examined her\\
And she's not only merely dead,\\
She's really most sincerely dead!''
-->-- '''The Munchkin Coroner''', ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''

A staple of the PoliceProcedural. Also known as the Medical Examiner or ME, the Coroner tells the detectives how the victim died and hands them any interesting trace evidence. Typically, this professional is the detectives' first stop after [[EvidenceScavengerHunt examining the crime scene]].

The coroner is typically depicted in crime shows as a middle-aged, dryly sardonic male whose daily handling of corpses has left him thoroughly [[ItGetsEasier desensitized to even the most horrible of deaths]]. This is usually played for comic effect, such as [[AutopsySnackTime having the coroner eat a sandwich while working,]] or reacting calmly to a murder so gruesome it even freaks out the heroes. Many have a tendency to [[TalkingToTheDead speak to the deceased]], either in jokes or sympathy over a particularly violent death. This tends to be TruthInTelevision. May or may not be involved in [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch dismissing violent murders as suicides or accidents]]; the role can also be filled by another member of law enforcement.

Note that in RealLife the position of coroner may or may not be held by a medical doctor. In some jurisdictions both positions are held by the same person, but in others the coroner is a lawyer or paralegal who handles the paperwork, conducts inquiries, etc., while the medical examiner is a forensic pathologist who conducts the autopsies. In some areas the coroner is an elected official like TheSheriff (indeed, in the United States this is very common), and a few US counties even combine the two offices. In several states, the coroner also has the power to arrest the sheriff and serve as the acting sheriff, taking interim charge of the county jail. In some areas, too, there aren't enough suspicious deaths to justify the cost of a full-time forensic pathologist; in these areas, a local surgeon or GP usually handles less suspicious cases while obvious murders are farmed out to freelance forensic pathologists. Also, in RealLife most deaths reported to the coroner or medical examiner aren't investigated, since most deaths that have to be reported aren't suspicious deaths.

Interestingly, most forensic pathology residents these days are women; in twenty years, it's estimated that almost all medical examiners will be female.

Compare to the CreepyMortician and the {{Undertaker}} character in Westerns.
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!!Example Subpages:

[[index]]
* TheCoroner/LiveActionTV
[[/index]]

!!Other Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Though not officially a Coroner, Sakurako of ''Literature/BeautifulBonesSakurakosInvestigation'' effectively serves this role. In the first episode, she is able to determine that a couple found dead on the beach were, in fact, murder victims and not a double suicide as the police had initially suspected. In another episode, she comforts a young woman by pointing out that her grandmother's death was an unfortunate accident, and not a suicide (Sakurako was the one to discover the skeleton). And in another episode, she quickly determines that a man's "accident" was actually a suicide attempt.
* The rather depressed Dr. Knox of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' averts the usual attitude of this trope. A former surgeon, he was forced to perform horrific medical experiments on Ishvalans during the war and chose to become a coroner after the war out of shame. Though he would never admit it, he is grateful that he gets to save [[spoiler:Lan Fan and May Chang]].
* Dr. Harashaw of ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]]''. Notable for being a cybernetic pathologist -- she's called in by Section 9 to look at "dead" cyber-bodies and determine how they, er, terminally malfunctioned.
* Runessa Magnus from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', a teenager and Teana's temporary partner for the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks Mariage case]] in ''[[AllThereInTheManual StrikerS Sound Stage X]]''. Handles autopsies and verification, she usually works behind the scenes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** For a few years, Mortimer Gunt in the comics. He was a bit character even during his creator Doug Moench's heyday on ''Batman''; his biggest role might actually be in Moench's prose collection ''The Forensic Files of Batman''.
** Currently Dr. Nora Fields. Her desensitization is partially because she's the Gotham City coroner, and as such, has been through everything including the [[TraumaCongaLine autopsy on her own husband's shattered, frozen body and having her arm blown off by the Joker.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''Central Shadow Realm'' universe, the coroners for the Central Shadow Realm Police Department are Injection Fairy Lilies. They're known for two things: sarcasm and chain-smoking.
* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the Bosnian Edith Saric fills this role... though she gets in trouble early on for trying to break out of it by going intrepid.
* In ''Fanfic/StarlightOverDetrot'', due to the general lack of homicides within Equestria -- as well as the fact that it's quite a distasteful task -- the job of forensic pathologist is very difficult to fill. In fact, Detrot only has one coroner ([[ItMakesSenseInContext plus or minus an oversized hamster]]): Slip Stitch, a pony who starts out [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} on the strange side]], then [[CrossingTheLineTwice jumps right off]] [[BlackComedy that slippery slope.]] Add to that the fact that he occupies the Detrot Morgue and Ice Cream Parlor, and, well...
-->'''Hardy:''' Have you been into the embalming fluid again?\\
'''Slip Stitch:''' Oh! Yes, I have. Goes down smooth, gives a heady rush.
* ''Fanfic/TrollCops'' has Dr. Kanaya Maryam, Medical Examiner for the Alternia City Police Department, who also serves as TheMole in the APD for [[TheOrder S.E.E.R.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'', Van Helsing, played by Creator/MelBrooks, manages to make interns faint out of pure disgust as he works on a body... and keeps '''''SCORE''''' of the interns that fainted!!!
* In the spoof movie ''Film/LoadedWeapon1'', Dr. Joyce Brothers is the coroner investigating York's killing. In an amusing twist, she's portrayed as surly and insensitive:
-->'''Dr. Brothers:''' All right. This loser has taken the chicken shit way out and punched her own ticket.
* ''Film/MenInBlack'': Dr. Laurel Weaver works at a morgue which receives a large number of deceased aliens. It is implied MIB operatives neuralyze her on a semi-regular basis.
* Jim from ''Film/MysteryRoad'' may look and act like a quirky FrontierDoctor, but he is sharp as a tack and nothing escapes his forensic examination.
* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'':
** The first seven films have Dr. Adam Heffner of the Metropolitan Police Department. While he first appeared in ''Film/SawIV'' and doesn't get much screentime to know his personality well, he was the one who examined the cause of death of all the victims in the Jigsaw killings found by the police from the [[Film/SawI first movie]] to ''Film/Saw3D'' (where he ends up getting killed by Hoffman).
** Logan Nelson and Eleanor Bonneville are the two medical examiners who are involved in the case of the new Jigsaw killing spree in ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}''.
* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the German comedy movie ''The Vexxer'' by the grossly incompetent Dr. Bedpan, who's having a children's birthday party in his morgue.
-->'''Dr. Bedpan:''' We've got painters in the flat. It's my son's eighth birthday, so we've moved the party here.\\
'''Inspector Even Longer:''' Why here? Where's your wife, then?\\
'''Dr. Bedpan:''' Over there, slab 207.
* In ''Film/VForVendetta'', Dr. Delia Surridge informs the police that V's victims were killed with commonly available poisons which are therefore untraceable. It turns out that she worked at Lark Hill an [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Evil Scientist]], experimenting on the prisoners. She is killed painlessly by V in her sleep for her later remorse.
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': "As coroner, I must aver, I've thoroughly examined her... and she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!"
* Whittington fulfills this role in ''Film/{{Wolfen}}'', as well as being half of ThoseTwoGuys with his friend Ferguson. Together, they're the ones who figure out that the attacks are being carried out by wolves.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Athyra}}'', the village physician Master Wag teaches young Savn how to examine a dead body to determine how it got that way.
* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'':
** The Welsh boatman Madog knows every inch of the Severn so well that he's the go-to person to advise investigators about when and where bodies have wound up in the river, or where they're likely to turn up after a drowning or water-dumping. He's also hauled so many corpses out of the river that he's widely known as "Madog of the Dead-Boat".
** Cadfael himself, as the abbey herbalist, is the one to examine dead bodies and determine how they died. While he shares his findings with sheriff Hugh Beringar, he does most of the questioning.
* ''Literature/TheCemeteriesOfAmalo'': Ulzhavar, the Master of the Mortuary, is a distant relative of an ImpoverishedPatrician and is often found conducting autopsies for investigative purposes and/or to instruct his new subordinates in how it's done. Thara consults him in multiple cases when he needs to exhume a body and determine if someone was poisoned. In an interesting coincidence, one of those victims turns out to be Ulzhavar's own great-aunt by marriage, and Ulzhavar's report helps catch her killer.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** The Ankh-Morpork City Watch has [[TheIgor Igor]], who can not only tell you how someone died, but, on occasion, can fix it.
** Mr Waynesbury in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' is Ham-on-Koom's coroner, as well as the magistrate. He spends his afternoons fly-fishing in the peaceful waters of the lower Koom River. Given the extremely treacherous nature of the upper Koom, and its attraction to treasure seekers, this often leads to discoveries that require him to go back to work.
* Dr Waldo Butters from the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' series is a medical examiner (mostly on the night shift because of [[ContinuityNod an incident]] when he filed a bunch of vampire corpses as "humanoid, but not human"). He gives [[OccultDetective Harry]] (and sometimes [[FriendOnTheForce Murphy]]) information on suspicious or just plain weird cases that end up in the morgue. He [[SurgeonsCanDoAutopsiesIfTheyWant can do surgery if he wants]] when Harry can't go to the hospital because of those pesky mandatory reporter laws and the fact that he's a WalkingTechBane thanks to his magic, though unlike some examples of this trope, he hates operating on living people. He has a thing for polka, and as of ''Literature/SkinGame,'' is a [[spoiler: Knight of the Cross]].
* The coroner, Doctor Hugel, in Jed Rubenfield's ''Interpretation of Murder'', has been given the nickname "The Ghoul" for the eagerness with which he performs his postmortems. He also gets this line:
-->'''Dr. Hugel:''' Altogether a fine female chest. The heart and lungs -- the perfect example of healthy asphyxiated tissue. Why -- it was a pleasure to hold them in one's hands!"
* Dr. Kay Scarpetta, of the ''Kay Scarpetta'' series by Creator/PatriciaCornwell. Before the series degenerated into total WriterOnBoard, she served as the Chief M.E. of Virginia, and had the MD/JD to back it up.
* ''Literature/TheManyLivesOfStephenLeeds'': Liza from ''Skin Deep''. In her late fifties, she works as the city coroner, although she prefers to be called "medical examiner". According to Stephen Leeds she spends most of the time playing internet games and prefers the dead to the living - but then again, he might be a little biased.
* Acatl, High Priest of the Dead in the ''Literature/ObsidianAndBlood'' Trilogy. As High Priest of the Dead, part of his job is to examine the bodies of people dead under unusual circumstances for probable cause, then help figure out who did it. Granted, he does the figuring out using BloodMagic, but still.
* Polina, the young pathologist from Martin Cruz Smith's ''[[Literature/GorkyPark Red Square]]''. She is hardworking and honest, which is a rarity in the Moscow militia (police forces), and jaded and cynical far beyond her years, which is not. As the novel is set in the last few months of the UsefulNotes/SovietUnion, the militia have to make do with dwindling resources. Case in point: she arrives at a theory that the victim of the book was killed by an incendiary device of copper sulfate and red sodium separated by a permeable barrier like paper or cheesecloth; when the sodium soaks through and comes in contact with the copper sulfate the device ignites. So to test her theory, she invites the lead investigator to come with her to the car junkyard, where her test equipment consists of a stopwatch, a paintboard and brush, various membranes to be tested, and a bucket each of red sodium and copper sulfate. (When the investigator points out, rather gingerly, that they have militia technicians with body armor, bunkers, and very long brushes for this, she answers that she's quicker and better -- and she is.) She also accounts for the unusually large amount of blood she found at the crime scene, by testing the blood and finding that it's not human - the killer made improvised napalm by mixing gasoline with cattle blood, adding that liquid soap and egg yolks can be used for the same purpose.
* Dr. Ito in the ''Literature/SanoIchiro'' series, a position that is especially tricky in [[JidaiGeki Edo-period Japan]] as performing autopsies violates UsefulNotes/{{Shinto}} practices of the time, under which only members of the ''burakamin'' ("untouchable") caste can touch dead bodies, animal or human. In addition, he uses forbidden Western medicine knowledge and techniques to do them, an issue which has already gotten him "exiled" to Edo Jail.
* Asklepiodes in John Maddox Roberts's ''Literature/{{SPQR}}'' series, a Greek physician attached to a gladiator school in ancient Rome. Thanks to his position he knows more about violence-related injuries than any other doctor in Rome, and is also an avid collector of exotic swords and other melee weapons. Because physicians are considered "philosophers", he is technically forbidden from practicing medicine with his own hands, but he has a number of well-trained slaves, and when he does get his own hands bloody, his employers and the detective always look the other way.
* ''Unnatural Causes:'' a memoir by Dr Richard Shepherd. Shepherd is one of Britain's leading forensic pathologists, and in the book he talks about various cases he has been involved with, some famous, some lesser known but important to his career.
* Subverted in the book ''Literature/TheWestingGame''. [[spoiler:The dead man isn't really dead--in fact, the "corpse" is a wax dummy--and the coroner is in on the whole thing.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Common character in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', examples include Dr. Jean Qualls and Dr. Joseph Gutierrez. There are also several pre-made PlayerCharacter templates for M.E.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Mysteries'' has templates for Medical Examiner and Forensic Specialist, noting that in different jurisdictions, either might be a coroner.
* This is a pretty common character archetype in ''Franchise/TheWorldOfDarkness'' gamelines (the other would be the detective), since one's first brush with the supernaturals is usually [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade at the receiving end of their murderous power]], or examining someone who were in such an unenviable position.
-->Wagner eyed the four deep furrows running diagonally across the man's chest. They'd cut through tissue and bone as cleanly as a saw. Four guys couldn't have done that at the same time. No way.\\
Not four assailants, Detective. Feingold raised his left hand to the light. [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Four fingers. These are claw marks.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Being a Crime game, the police department of ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'' has a coroner to autopsy the victim for every case. In Grimsborough, there is the nature-loving Nathan Pandit; while in Pacific Bay, the victim's corpses are handled by the witty Roxie Sparks who is absolutely ''thrilled'' to examine dead bodies and hardly ever misses the chance to make puns about the victims' cause of death.
* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', Dr. Maximillian Roivas can perform autopsies on [[EldritchAbomination biologically impossible creatures]] and record his findings inside the ''Tome of Eternal Darkness'', making for a convenient MonsterCompendium.
* During one chapter of ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', detective Carla Valenti goes to her police station's mortuary to watch a coroner perform his duties on the victim in the game's resident murder case. He declares his findings aloud; if the player passes a QuickTimeEvent during these declarations, they'll learn what conclusions Carla draws from the autopsy, such as the lack of a struggle and the killer being left-handed.
* Membrillo from the game ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' is a traditional example, down to the dark sense of humor. Well, aside from the fact that since he works in the Land of the Dead, the "corpses" he deals with are those who've been "sprouted" and are thus DeaderThanDead... (Membrillo translates as "Quince" -- surely a nod to Quincy?)
-->'''Membrillo:''' The secret to my happiness, Manuel, is I have the heart of a 12-year-old child. [[HavingAHeart I keep it in a jar over here.]] Would you like to see it?\\
'''Manny:''' ''No.''\\
'''Membrillo:''' Sorry, old coroner joke.
* John Dresden from ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns''. Although his actual job is more like running a chop shop for humans, he gets subcontracted by Lone Star to do autopsies as well.
* In a skit, Jade in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' will mention that as a boy, he wanted to become a doctor... of pathology. As an adult, he joined the military instead, but still retained the coroner's unflappability and dark sense of humour.
%%* Naomi Kirishima's specialty in ''[[VideoGame/TraumaCenter Trauma Team]]''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Kai Kalaba in ''VisualNovel/CauseOfDeath''. He's ''much'' younger than the usual (he isn't even 30!), and is also a [[BunnyEarsLawyer near-impulsive nerd]]. And he's kind of a CloudCuckooLander ''on top of that''.
* In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', [[ExtremeDoormat Mikan Tsumiki]] helps out by examining the corpses of the murder victims, determining how they died, which often provides vital clues for the trials. [[spoiler:When she reverts to her [[AlternateSelf old self]] as a member of [[ApocalypseCult Ultimate Despair]], she uses her expertise to help cover up the times her own victims died]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In the ''WebAnimation/{{Fanfictasia}}'' series, this role is filled by Shuri from ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', who contributes to the investigation with Wakandian computers and tech.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* [[http://thewretchedoneswebcomic.com/ The Wretched Ones]] has the coroner Jean and her sometimes assistant Mortimer have an entire conversation while she is performing an autopsy. Mortimer proceeds to take a nap in the morgue while Jean is examining a heart.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* On the "[[https://www.youtube.com/c/ChronikFiction/videos Chronik Fiction]]" channel, there is a French web-series called ''Le Coroner'' that is about a nameless coroner giving autopsies related to the dead of fictional characters such as Darth Vader, Private Pyle and Aerith. The coroner then explains to the viewers the impacts that these deaths had in the world of fiction and what secrets are behind each of these deaths. In some episodes, the actor playing the autopsy corpse looks like the fictional character whose death is being reviewed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Arnold and Gerald once met a coroner during their search for a document that'd save their neighborhood. One of them opened a drawer that contained a corpse. The coroner wasn't even slightly disgusted by it, of course (a coroner who's disgusted by corpses would be like a carpenter who's disgusted by wood).
* Coroner Rick, on ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'', is a parodic version of this character.
[[/folder]]
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