Some deaths come with a price tag for Warren County taxpayers.

The county pays the state medical examiner’s office about $64,000 annually to perform autopsies at the state morgue in Jackson, county coroner Doug Huskey told Port City Kiwanis Thursday. On average, Huskey said, he orders about 40 autopsies per year.

“In all you’re looking at about $1,600 per autopsy,” Huskey said.

The fees paid to the state include the autopsies — each lasting four hours — toxicology tests, storage and transportation, Huskey said.

“Once the county takes the body there, they are obligated to bring it back,” Huskey said.

Not all deaths qualify for an autopsy, and families frequently don’t want autopsies performed, Huskey said. The examination process is usually reserved for homicides, suicides and other deaths where the cause is not obvious, Huskey said.

Results from autopsies often are available the following day.

The bodies of suicide victims almost always are sent to the state medical examiner for autopsy, Huskey said.

“If we don’t do it, six months later, someone will come up and dispute the cause of death,” Huskey said.

Autopsies are required by law for prisoners who die in custody, children younger than 2 and people who are killed at work, he said.

“Certain ones, you do an autopsy whether the family wants one or not,” he said.

Autopsies are sometimes used in fatal wrecks, but mostly only toxicology tests are used, he said. The tests are free if performed by the state crime lab but can cost hundreds of dollars if performed by a private entity, Huskey said.

The number of toxicology tests greatly varies each year and almost all of them are performed by the state crime lab, he said.

The leading causes of undetermined deaths in the county are related to heart disease, though heart disease itself cannot be listed as a cause of death, Huskey said.

In the past few years, deaths related to overdoses of prescription medication also have been increasing, he said.

“I see about 10 a year,” he said.

The county also foots a portion of the bill for burials of those who cannot afford funerals, he said.

“When somebody has no money, the county will pay $500 toward the burial,” Huskey said.

So far this year, the county has performed five pauper’s burials, according to the chancery clerk’s office.