It seems to me that when someone dies under circumstances that require an autopsy, the press reports always say that the final coroner’s report will take four to six weeks pending toxicology tests.
Why do these particular tests take so long? Are there just a few labs that can do them? Or do the tests just take that long to run for some sort of chemical reason?
Backlog.
I have heard that too but it sounds like a strange reason. If they are chronically behind, maybe they should get some extra people and equipment and get caught up for once. It isn’t like the total number of tests they have to do changes just because they are always running behind.
So what’s your hurry? The guy is dead. If the report take 3 weeks or 6 weeks the guy is still dead. There’s no real urgency here, unless there’s a murder suspect in which case I’m sure they can prioritize certain cases. Why hire a bunch more people so you can cut the backlog by half?
First of all, extra equipment and personnel cost money, and that’s something that is generally in scarce supply these days.
Second, test results have to be analyzed and verified, and that takes time. Since you’re talking about something that is generally legal evidence, you have to be pretty sure that what the machine said was cocaine really was cocaine; you can’t just assume that the machine was correct.
Third, some tests can’t be done in-house due to lack of equipment or whatever, and those have to be outsourced to a different lab, which adds some time.
Based on my experience, though, it usually doesn’t take that long to get results back. It’s like being told by a restaurant hostess that you’re looking at a 45-minute wait when she knows it won’t be that long.