PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria County Coroner’s Office has announced its yearly burial of unclaimed cremated remains.
The office, in conjunction with OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, has released a list of names of the deceased whose ashes were in custody of the coroner.
Most of the remains, they said, were unclaimed because friends and family of the deceased simply did not have the financial means to conduct a proper burial.
Thus, said Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood, his office would release remains at no cost to anyone who were to come forth to claim them.
“We’re not going to hold anyone ransom,” he said.
“It’s expensive to bury someone and a lot of these people don’t have friends and family we were able to find at the time [of their deaths], but we’re going to make them available.”
The death dates of most of the deceased on the list are from 2018 and 2019, but there are some outliers, which had been in possession of funeral home T W Parks, from as far back as 2001 and even 1991,
“The funeral home directors asked I take their remains to put into our burial and I agreed to do so,” said Harwood.
“I think if we were to look around a lot of the funeral homes around town, they have [unclaimed remains], but T W Parks reached out to me and I agreed to collaborate with them in this effort.”
Harwood said Saint Francis wanted to conduct a mass burial on All Souls Day, Nov. 2., but it may not be until the week after.
“I would like if you see a friend or loved one on that list, to reach out to us as soon as possible. We’re not going to go through with a burial if somebody wants to claim a loved one,” he said.
To see the list, click here:
