Latest news with #unclaimedremains
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Yahoo
Judah Mintz finishes through contact
Labrador City residents raise enough money to bring home unclaimed remains When Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services released the identities of the unclaimed bodies kept in long-term storage at a hospital in St. John's, it prompted Julia Hall of Labrador City to see if that included anyone from Labrador West. To her surprise, there was. Hall and others in the community raised the money to give Mario Boucher a proper burial. The CBC's Darryl Dinn reports. 1:26 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
CBS News
09-06-2025
- CBS News
Pennsylvania coroner's offices seeing increased number of unclaimed remains
Coroner's offices across Pennsylvania are seeing a growing number of unclaimed remains. From Beaver County to Westmoreland and Fayette, county coroners told KDKA-TV that dozens of remains go unclaimed every year, and the numbers appear to be increasing. "It was definitely surprising," Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson said. Carson took office in 2022. He said that's when he discovered several boxes stacked in a storage room at his office. "I said, 'What are those?' And those were our unclaimed, cremated remains," Carson said. He said there were 57 total unclaimed remains in the boxes. Some had been sitting on the shelf since 1989. "We ran all 57 names through and 15 of them turned out to be United States veterans," Carson said. Carson said, on average, his office sees six to nine unclaimed remains each year. He said the main reason comes down to estrangement. "Sometimes we do find a next of kin and they say, 'Hey, I didn't like when they were alive, I'm not taking responsibility for them,'" Carson said. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco said finances can also be an issue, with some families reporting they cannot afford arrangements. When remains go unclaimed, each county coroner said it comes out of the county's general fund to cremate and transport, which is supported by taxpayers' wallets. KDKA Investigates found the number of unclaimed remains varies in each county. Over the last 40 years in Fayette County, the county coroner reports a total of eight unclaimed remains. In Indiana County, there have been 30 over the last 10 years. Warco said in Washington County, since 2016, his office has investigated 218 unclaimed remains, with 135 remaining unclaimed. In Allegheny County, on average, there have been 133 unclaimed remains between 2019 and 2023. Beaver County reported six to eight cases a year, and in Butler, it's approximately three to eight cases per year. County coroners say another challenge can be tracking down family. Carson said his office uses social media and a program called TLO. "The deputies can get into and they can look at people's driver's license records, places they may have lived at, worked at, and then we just kind of backtrack from there," Carson said. After exhausting all resources, Carson said if they can't locate family or if families choose not to claim, the body will be cremated. If they're a veteran, Carson said they'll receive a proper burial at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies. Other unclaimed remains in Westmoreland County are laid to rest in a columbarium next to Pauper Cemetery in Greensburg. Some neighboring counties also hold a ceremony, while others said they hope to get space in mausoleums to ensure each person is remembered with dignity and so family members can still pay their respects, if they choose.
CBC
04-06-2025
- CBC
Community working to bring unclaimed body home to western Labrador for burial
Julia Hall was scanning the province's new registry of unclaimed remains when she saw a name she recognized. Mario Boucher's body is in storage in St. John's, but Hall and others have decided to raise the money to bring him home.
CBC
30-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Residents of Conception Bay North are working to claim one of their own from a hospital freezer
People in Conception Bay North are planning a fundraiser to hold a funeral for a local man whose unclaimed remains have been held at a St. John's hospital for years. The CBC's Mark Quinn reports.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
N.L. hasn't buried a single unclaimed body since legislation change in January
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador made a legislation change four months ago meant to tackle the growing number of unclaimed bodies being held in freezer units at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's — but it has yet to bury a single person. According to the amended legislation, which was filed on Dec. 24 and came into effect on Jan. 1, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) has the power to bury unclaimed remains after two weeks of searching for next of kin and then five days after the identity of the person is posted online on a dedicated website. The website also has yet to launch. Health authority spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary told CBC News in an email that work is still ongoing on the legislation and the website. "N.L. Health Services handles unclaimed human remains respectfully and will take steps to identify and contact individuals who may be entitled to claim the remains, prior to posting information to the web page," she wrote. Etchegary said the number of remains still long-term storage facilities changes frequently, but as of May 14 there were 27 bodies. "To date, no burials for unclaimed remains have been completed by N.L. Health Services as we finalize operationalizing the legislation," she wrote. CBC News first reported the health authority was storing 28 bodies in freezer units in an alleyway on hospital property more than a year ago. It was due to a lack of space in the morgue, which doubles as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Over the summer, NLHS relocated the freezers to the hospital's underground parking garage and built a wall around it. Procedure in place Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell, who took over the portfolio last week, says there is a procedure in place for the health authority to deal with unclaimed bodies. "We do expect that they are following that to the letter on how they conduct the operations around these unclaimed remains. So they have a more clear pathway as to how they handle this," Howell told reporters on Thursday. But even with the website not up and running, she wouldn't say whether the legislation was working. "That would be our expectation of NLHS and certainly we'll have further conversations about that with the CEO and ensuring that we do the most appropriate measures to, with dignity, handle any unclaimed remains," Howell said. Progressive Conservative MHA and health critic Barry Petten says it's alarming that dozens of bodies are still in storage and that it reflects poorly on the province. "The province brought in this legislation, they were going to come up with processes," he said. "We're finding out there's still bodies in these coolers. It's just not satisfactory." Petten says no matter how someone lived or died, people deserve a dignified burial. "I don't think that's a satisfactory answer."
