The Peoria County Coroner’s Office, OSF Saint Francis, and area funeral homes collaborated on a special service Monday for deceased individuals who were never claimed by family or friends.
The mass burial was conducted at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria. About three dozen members of the public and other officials attended the ceremony after police led a procession from the coroner’s office to the cemetery.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood said the special service is held every two or three years after a number of unclaimed deceased have been identified.
“After they've passed away, they don't have any family, any friends, no one to make that claim to give them a final resting place,” Harwood said. “So, we take that over. We take them into our care, and we make sure that they're provided the dignity they need to go to their final resting place.”
During the service, 147 names were read aloud. Hardwood said 153 people were claimed before the service.
Harwood said the costs of the service were covered by private donations, with OSF Saint Francis providing the burial plot for the cremated remains, noting the coroner’s office is obligated by law to provide for a proper final disposition for unclaimed individuals.
“There's sometimes people don't have any family whatsoever, where they maybe never married, they didn't have any children, cousins are gone,” he said, adding that sometimes families cannot afford burials, so after cremation, the family later claims the remains.
Harwood said efforts are made to identify as many people as possible prior to these special services. Lists of names used to be made public, but the coroner’s office has moved away from that approach because of the volume of calls that would be received.
“We have a pretty extensive background search software that we use; we collaborate that with the county sheriff's department, sometimes the state police, to find anyone that might be related to them or want to take them into their care,” he said.
Efforts also are made to identify veterans so that veterans’ organizations can give those individuals a proper military burial.
And, if necessary, Harwood said special accommodations are made in the services for the religious beliefs of the unclaimed deceased if they were not Christian or not religious.
