While conducting a coroner's investigation of a death hereunder, the Baldwin County Coroner or state medical examiner shall be authorized to take charge of the dead body, and he or she or a law enforcement officer having jurisdiction may take possession and examine or have examined related physical evidence on or about the body at the scene as may be useful in establishing identity of the deceased or the cause, manner, and circumstances of death. The Baldwin County Coroner is authorized to take or order the taking of certain tissues and fluids under Section 22-19-80. When a state medical examiner takes charge of a body, he or she is authorized to take, retain, and examine or have examined whatever tissues, biological fluids, or other evidence from the body he or she deems necessary to determine the cause, manner, and circumstances of death and the identity of the deceased.
Ala. Code § 45-2-61.05 (1975)