Promulgated on March 1, 2001 per FuMiZi# 9007940 Decree
Article 1 The Kinmen County Government enacts this Ordinance for the purpose of handling unknown bodies.
Article 2 The competent authority to handle unknown body is Kinmen County Police Bureau.
Article 3 When the county’s Police Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Bureau) is aware of any unknown body, personnel shall be sent to seal off the site and examine it with technical personnel. At the same time, the persecutor shall be notified to do an on-site postmortem examination and begin investigation immediately.
Article 4 At the site of the unknown body, the inquisition procedure are stipulated including taking pictures, collection evidence, inspection, collecting fingerprints, collecting DNA samples, recording, and other necessary measures.
Article 5 The steps for handling unknown bodies are stipulated as follows:
1. Ascertain the name and identity of the deceased.
2. Match fingerprints and search whether any missing or lost persons have matching features with the deceased.
3. Determine the cause of death in accordance with the information acquired on site.
4. Where there is suspicion of a homicide, investigation in the direction of murder shall proceed.
Article 6 Unknown bodies shall be announced to the public for collection:
1. The Bureau shall register the unknown body’s sex, appearance and age, features, stature, clothes, figure, personal belongings, and photo of the body.
2. The duration of the public notice is twenty-five days. Person claiming the body shall contact with the Bureau for collection with ID card and a personal seal. The bodies shall be handled in accordance with related laws once the deadline is exceeded.
Article 7 Where the prosecutor examines the unknown body and decrees for a burial, it shall be handled as stipulated as follows:
1. Where name and identity have been ascertained, the body will be given to the family for burial.
2. Where name and identity have been ascertained but there is no family or family capable of or willing to carry out burial; or name and identity have not been ascertained, then the body shal be delivered to Kinmen County Funeral Home together with a certificate of postmortem report issued by Prosecutors Office for Fujian Kinmen District Court.
Article 8 Where the name and identity of the unknown body have not been ascertained, the inspection records, photo of body, fingerprints, DNA samples, etc shall be reported to Criminal Police Bureau of National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior for cross-check.
Article 9 The Ordinance will take effect as of the date of promulgation.