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No, not really true (but could vary depending on county by county and state by state laws). Some counties have coroners (which is nothing like a state that has MEs per county).
Arkansas used to only have one Crime Lab (in Little Rock) so they were inundated, and I believe their counties were coroners (could be different now)
We did not do cancer patients. I never saw anyone come in due to cancer.
If you die in your sleep at home - what killed you?
There could always be underlying reasons that do not appear, that caused your death, that could be sinister. Maybe it looked like it was a case for a non-autopsy, maybe made to even look that way. Maybe you're 98 and they think its natural causes or a heart attack...but given a closer look, maybe someone injected an air bubble into you via injection and you really died of air embolism. Who knows. There is always, almost always, a reason to look deeper into a cause of death.
We thought a car accident was a car accident until the car and body was brought in, and with no skid marks from tires, and his foot on the accelerator, the ME determined it was suicide.
Have seen a lot of strange things.
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