Coroner Section / Public Administrator
1832 Flower Street
Bakersfield, CA
(661) 868-0100
FAX (661) 868-0149

The office of the Coroner was first established in 1866 and combined with the Public Administrator in 1922. The Kern County Board of Supervisors in January 1995 consolidated the Coroner/ Public Administrator with the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

The Public Administrator administers estates if no executor or administrator is appointed or available. Estate property is safeguarded by the Public Administrator until an executor or administrator is appointed.

The Coroner has the mandated duty to inquire into and determine the circumstances, manner and cause of death in jurisdictional cases as enumerated in the California Government Section 27491 and Health and Safety Code Section 102850. The Coroner Section covers all of Kern County's 8,200 square miles including eleven cities and two military bases.

California Government Code Section 27491: It shall be the duty of the coroner to inquire into and determine the circumstances, manner and cause of all violent, sudden, or unusual deaths; deaths wherein the deceased has not been attended by a physician in the 20 days before death; deaths related to or following known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion; known or suspected homicide, suicide, or accidental poisoning; deaths known or suspected as resulting in whole or in part from or related to accident or injury either old or recent; deaths due to drowning, fire, hanging, gunshot, stabbing, cutting, exposure, starvation, acute alcoholism, drug addiction, strangulation, aspiration, or where the suspected cause of death is sudden infant death syndrome; death in whole or in part occasioned by criminal means; deaths associated with a known or alleged rape or crime against nature; deaths in prison or while under sentence; deaths known or suspected as due to contagious disease and constituting a public hazard; deaths from occupational diseases or occupational hazards; deaths of patients in state mental hospitals serving the mentally disabled and operated by the State Department of Mental Health; deaths of patients in state hospitals serving the developmentally disabled and operated by the State Department of Developmental Services; deaths under such circumstances as to afford a reasonable ground to suspect that the death was caused by the criminal act of another; and any deaths reported by physicians or other persons having knowledge of death for inquiry by the coroner.

John & Jane Does: The Coroner Section investigates more than 2000 reportable deaths each year and due to the county's large area and weather conditions, several cases result in the decedent not being identified. This can be due to the condition of the body (skeletal remains, decomposition, animal activity, trauma, etc.) or just the fact the person has no identification. The Coroner's Section maintains a file of approximately one to two cases per year of non-identified remains commonly referred to as John or Jane Does.