Unclaimed: 6 years after death, Montgomery County man gets burial he paid for

[Northeast Agent]

There's a big project two reporters from my local newpaper have taken on over the past couple of years. Lots of interesting, sad, fascinating stories here.

"Parents, military veterans, murder victims and Holocaust survivors are sitting in local morgues and unmarked graves in the Philadelphia suburbs. Hundreds of unclaimed dead are forcing local governments to spend more time, resources and tax money, as coroners have become the undertakers of last resort. Reporters Jo Ciavaglia and James McGinnis have spent months finding and telling their stories in their ongoing series, The Unclaimed."

Unclaimed: 6 years after death, Montgomery County man gets burial he paid for

Funeral and cemetery directors say it's virtually unheard of that someone who prepaid for final arrangements ends up among the unclaimed dead in a county morgue. But it's happened at least twice in the last decade locally.

 

[fed up]

Pretty easy to see how this happens unless coroners can access information through social security numbers. Hospitals have a hard time getting their billing correct for patients, even when the person is still in a room. A transfer from a LTC facility, no next of kin, person dies in the hospital and who do you call?. My brother died in upstate Pa and his phone had first names only as contacts. He lived by himself and died when he was on a tdy work assignment. I think the Coroner went through every name until he got to me to notify me of his death.