MARION COUNTY, INDIANA, Ind. — The Marion County Coroner’s Office and a local ministry announced Friday a new plan to lay to rest 171 unclaimed adults.
Before this plan, the bodies waited in limbo without a final resting place. Some of the remains have remained unclaimed for years.
“I find this absolutely unacceptable,” said Linda Znachko, founder of the He Knows Your Name ministry. “As children of God, I believe they all deserve worth and a final resting place.”
Now her organization is using its own money as well as donations to put the remains in an ossuary at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens. Znachko didn’t tell 13News exactly how much it will cost, but gave us an estimate of $18,000. Less than what it normally costs for a family, she acknowledged, her organization is receiving a discount.
Marion County Chief Deputy Coroner Alfie McGinty said when the coroner’s office receives a body, workers then try to notify next of kin, family, or friends to claim the body. The office actually keeps the body refrigerated for 30-60 days to try to give loved ones time to come forward. Each day of refrigeration costs about $40.
Still, they wait so family members can decide if they want to move forward with a burial or cremation.
“Unfortunately, in some cases there are no family members that have survived the decedent that we have in our custody,” McGinty said. “In other cases, families have had some difficulty in finding and identify resources to take care of those decedents, their loved ones.”
If no one comes forward in about two months, the body is cremated. Those cost about $350. Loved ones are expected to take on those costs if they come later to claim the remains.
But if no one comes, they just wait in limbo. One man’s remains, Robert Blair Jr., were left waiting at the coroner’s office for more than 15 years. There are 171 unclaimed adults from 2006-2019 and more than 200 when you include more recent years.
Each of their names is posted online.
“It is time. It is time for them to be honored and claimed in death,” Znachko said.
Her group He Knows Your Name usually claims and buries unclaimed babies. She's now planning a Celebration of Life for Sept. 26 at 10:30am at Antioch Indy Community Church for these unclaimed adults.
The remains will then be brought to Oaklawn Memorial Gardens and put into an ossuary. Once placed in the container, the remains cannot be retrieved.
Family members that would like to now claim their loved ones are asked to contact the Marion County Coroner’s Office at 317-327-4744 before Sept. 20.
The goal is to hold similar celebrations of life and a final resting place for other unclaimed remains in the future. To their knowledge, this is the only plan like this to handle what they call an “epidemic of unclaimed remains.”