GRIEVING families of people who have died in questionable circumstances are having to wait months to receive a death certificate, the Mid-Ocean News has learned.

And the delays are causing legal and financial problems for bereaved widows and widowers trying to claim on their spouses' pension and life insurance policies or get mortgages paid off.

A massive backlog of case files has built up because the island does not have a specialist coroner's investigation unit. Instead, regular police officers investigate the circumstances of certain deaths on top of their regular duties. Only once an investigation has been completed to the satisfaction of Senior Coroner Archibald Warner can a death certificate be issued.

Assistant to the Coroner Sergeant Adrian Cook told the Mid-Ocean News there were a number of factors causing a delay in death certificates being issued ¿ but that a manpower shortage was a key factor.

Sgt. Cook said police officers "have to compete for time during their regular street duties to try and complete and assemble a relatively complex report".

"And I can tell you that writing and compiling the covering report is an intimidating task and takes a lot of time and concentration," he said.

The delays ¿ and subsequent financial hurdles ¿ were highlighted by Scottish widow Beth Yates, whose husband Richard disappeared while working on a Bermuda-registered gas tanker about 100 miles off the coast of Senegal last year.

Although her husband has been missing presumed dead for 12 months, Mrs. Yates has yet to receive a death certificate from the Bermuda authorities. Without it she cannot claim her husband's pension or get her mortgage paid off. It has now been put to the top of the list for the Coroner's Office after she filed a complaint this week.

Sgt. Cook pointed out that his office does not issue death certificates but reports to Mr. Warner, who is also Senior Magistrate, or one of three deputy coroners who in turn complete the necessary documentation required for a death certificate to be issued by the Registry General.

Sgt. Cook described Mr. Yates' death as an "anomaly" since he did not go missing anywhere near Bermuda. However, because the ship was registered in Bermuda, the island was obliged to deal with it.

"When a death occurs on board a ship, an attempt is made by the vessel owners for the nearest port authorities to deal with it, Sgt. Cook said.

"This time it didn't happen because the nearest port was Senegal and it had nothing to do with Senegal, except that once they finished the search and rescue they were ordered to port.

An investigation was conducted in Senegal on behalf of Bermuda's Government by British Consulate authorities. Bermuda's Department of Marine Administration was notified of the matter and they in turn notified the police.

"The Merchant Shipping Act requires an inquiry be carried out and sometimes these are carried out by paper exercise," Sgt. Cook, said.

"When I was first notified of this I took it to the Coroner and we spent some time, several days in fact, going back and forth deciding whether it should be a Bermuda Coroner's case or not. In the end the Coroner decided that although the Merchant Shipping Act does give an option for the Coroner to take it on, there was no compelling reason for him to do so."

Sgt. Cook said the case was to be dealt with via an inquiry by the Ministry of Transport.

"But by that point I had gained so much involvement in the case that when the Department of Marine Administration made requests of the Commissioner of Police to carry out the inquiry, they already said they had been in consultation with me, so it became my case."

Sgt. Cook said no case like this had been dealt with since 1998 when a local investigator travelled to the ship to conduct inquiries. He explained that because Royal Dutch Shell had already collected statements from the crew, along with numerous photographs that had been taken at the time, there was no need for him to do this.

He added that Mr. Yates' widow had also since been interviewed by Scottish Police.

"All that was left for me was to put the file in some semblance of order, write a report on what I had gathered and venture some opinions, conclusions and recommendations," he said.

The report will be in the hands of Department of Marine Administration officials later today and they are expected to make recommendations to the Ministry of Transport.

"Should they agree with my findings, they will then make a recommendation to the Coroner that he make a finding that Mr. Yates is missing, presumed drowned," Sgt. Cook said, adding that a form would then be sent to the Registry General which will issue a death certificate.

When asked why it took so long for the report to be completed, Sgt. Cook said that, because of the two positions he holds ¿ assistant to the Coroner and officer in charge of the Judicial Support Unit ¿ there was simply never enough time.

"Both jobs compete with time for each other," he said.

"This was a big report and I wanted to be thorough and I didn't have the time to deal with it in that way, until the issue was forced and I was told, 'Sgt. Cook, don't do anything else except this Yates thing' and in the end it took me four full days to compile my report and send it on."

He said a death certificate is usually issued to a family within two to three weeks, but the more factors that press upon the case, the longer it will take ¿ as in the Yates' case and that of Patricia Steinhoff, the 58 year old who died earlier this month after a day of diving.

Sgt. Cook said he had her autopsy report, but would have to wait up to six weeks for toxicology tests ¿ something required by law in cases in which the nature of death in unknown, or needs further investigation.

Only then, he said, could he send a final report to the Coroner who would have to sign off on it. And even that, he said, could take a few months.