Guide
After a death at home in Spokane
If you have just found someone, call 911. Everything below can wait until you are ready to read it.
Step by step
- 1
Call 911
Dispatchers send police and, if needed, medics. Do not move the person or clean anything.
- 2
Police and the Medical Examiner
Washington law (RCW 68.50.010) gives the Medical Examiner jurisdiction over sudden deaths without recent medical attendance, deaths from unknown or violent causes, and some others. The Spokane County Medical Examiner is at 102 S Spokane St, Spokane, WA 99202, phone (509) 477-2296.
- 3
If the death was expected
When someone was under hospice or a doctor’s care, the process is often simpler. Hospice staff can tell you who to call.
- 4
The funeral home
The family picks a funeral home, which collects the person from the Medical Examiner or the home. Washington law (RCW 68.50.160) sets who decides: the person’s own written wishes first, then a designated agent, then the spouse or registered domestic partner, then the adult children, then the parents, then siblings.
- 5
The room
Once the Medical Examiner and police are finished, the home is released back to the family or owner. If the person was not found for a while, or there is blood, this is when a cleanup company is called.
- 6
Paperwork
Keep any case number the Medical Examiner or police give you. Insurers, landlords and banks may ask for it.
Whenever you are ready
You do not have to sort this out alone
Some families call the same evening. Others call after the service, or after talking with the landlord. Until then, keep the door to the room shut and leave the cleaning to people with the right protective gear.
Speak with a cleanup company
The call goes to an independent company that works in your ZIP code. Describe the room, ask how they would handle it and how they set the price. Nothing is agreed until you say so.
Call (509) 206-8076Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Calls may be recorded. Read the referral disclosure and the privacy policy.