Alameda County Coroner's Bureau

The Times visits the Alameda County Coroner's Bureau in Oakland to tour the facilities and hear a talk by Deputy Coroner Lt. David Hoig and Assistant Sheriff Robert Maginnis about the Bureau's role in the community. Here are two reports:

Muted Colors, Witty Asides, Ghastly Work:
A Day at the Coroner's Office

By Christin Ayers

OAKLAND -- With its muted colors and cozy chairs, the lobby of the Coroner's Office on Washington Street in downtown Oakland is as unassuming as the waiting room of a doctor's office. It is hard to imagine that just one floor below the office of the bubbly front desk receptionist lay the pulverized bodies of Oakland's latest homicide victims.

No Case the Same:
Coroner Grapples With Death and its Causes

By Simon Kinsella

OAKLAND -- Since Assistant Sheriff Robert J.P. Maginnis took a position at the Alameda County Coroner's Office, he has probably seen more gruesome imagery than he would like: Dismemberments, decapitations and general carnage are all a part of his daily routine. He also examined corpses literally squashed flat by falling debris during 1989's Loma Prieta Earthquake.