County has another expense: unclaimed bodies

By Vanessa Overholser - Staff Writer

Four bodies were unclaimed in Rowan County in the past year and the cost for burial is passed on to the county and local funeral homes.

County officials are searching for a solution for the problem.

“The county is responsible for being able to take care of the remains of the unclaimed if they are indigent,” said Jim Nickell, Rowan County judge-executive. “The cost to the county is $400 for indigent care. The funeral homes assume the rest of the cost for the burial. If no one claims a body, it’s more. It’s like $800 to $900 for cremation.”

“Since I was elected coroner in 1994, I had never dealt with an unclaimed body until last year and four deaths involved unclaimed bodies,” said Rowan County Coroner John Northcutt. “More bodies go unclaimed as families can’t afford the funeral cost.”

When bodies go unclaimed, Northcutt makes many attempts to contact next of kin. Some are not found either because the deceased has no relatives or he or she has relatives that do not want to be found.

There is a difference between unclaimed bodies and indigent burials, he said.

“An unclaimed body is when the deceased does not have any family or we are not able to locate the family,” he said. “Sometimes when family members are notified, they refuse to have anything to do with the situation. An indigent burial is when a death occurs and the family is unable or unwilling to assume financial obligations. In Kentucky, the county or city bears the burden of indigent burials.

“An unclaimed body or indigent burial in a natural death situation is not a coroner or funeral home responsibility,” Northcutt said. “Our local government will be faced more and more with these types of situations due to our population and the economy. Our local government (Rowan County Fiscal Court) has been very helpful in the past when dealing with these types of situations.”

County officials have been concerned about what to do with the body once it has been declared unclaimed. The county does not have a specific place to keep bodies until they are claimed.

“Cremation is also an option that has worked for our county,” Northcutt added.

Once the unclaimed bodies are cremated, officials make record of each one.

“Maintaining a record of the disposition of the body is essential,” Northcutt said. “Someday someone may come in and say they are doing a family tree and they want to know where their relative is and what’s happened to him or her.”

It is heartbreaking for officials whenever next of kin cannot be found.

“It is a sad situation when you have a deceased and we are not able to make contact with any family or when we do make contact they do not want any responsibility with the death,” Northcutt said.

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the cost of a regular adult funeral is $7,323. This includes everything but cemetery, monument or marker costs, or miscellaneous cash advance charges such as flowers or obituaries.

The average cremation cost varies, according to the Federated Funeral Directors of America. The average cost can be anywhere from $900 (usually on the west coast) to $4,300. The majority of cremated funerals are in the $3,000 range.

“Every deceased person, regardless of his or her financial situation, deserves dignity after death,” Northcutt said.

“I noticed in the last year and a half, the count has risen,” said Rowan County Judge-Executive Jim Nickell. “Here lately we’ve received bodies no one has claimed. Most of those come out of the nursing home and one from a hospital.”

Due to the unclaimed body count rising, officials are not sure of what to do with the bodies.

“We put them in a marked grave and wait to see if someone comes to claim them. Sometimes we do cremation which is okay by (state) statutes,” Nickell said.

Although the county does not have a cemetery devoted to indigent folks, there is a fund for indigent burials.

“We’ve had to bury some of the remains because it took some time for finding someone to claim them,” Nickell said. “We’ve always had indigent burials.”

Most of the time, officials have not been able to reach family members.

“It’s unfortunate that we have problems finding family members to claim the remains,” Nickell said. “The economy has a lot to do with it.”

“We have seen more than we have in the past,” Nickell said. “I think the county may see more incidents like this occur in time. You mix a bad economy with folks who lack funds for everyday living and then we find that incidents like this happen. I hope we will not see more of this but time will tell.”

Mike Gray, funeral director and embalmer for Lane-Stucky-Gray Funeral Home, said he has had an unclaimed body issue.

“A couple of years ago, we had a woman who passed away and her wishes were to be cremated,” Gray said. “She had children and we tried to track them down but we could not find them. We did find her sister who confirmed that cremation was her final wish. We had to get a special court order from a judge before we could do it.”

“It depends on the situation,” said Mike Wilder, executive director of the State Medical Examiner’s Office, about the time limit for keeping the remains. “If it is a coroner’s case, it is the coroner’s and the county responsibility to decide how long they can hold a body. There’s no set time limit on holding the remains.”

If a person is in a nursing home and passes away and a family refuses the responsibility of the funeral costs, it becomes the county’s responsibility, Wilder said.

Remains of unclaimed bodies are kept in a mausoleum located at Forrest Hills Memorial Gardens.

Northcutt said Rowan County is not alone when it comes to experiencing this type of problem.

“This is a county, state and national issue,” he said. “I’m currently serving as president of the Kentucky State Coroners Association and I am hearing about indigent and unclaimed body issues frequently. I have been told that some counties have purchased property for indigent and unclaimed people.”