Bodies stack up as California counts cost of funerals

Bodies stack up as California counts cost of funerals

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Bodies left unclaimed, cadavers stacked high in morgues and burial rates tumbling as loved ones cut funeral costs: the crippling recession is even haunting the dead across the United States.
In Los Angeles, the local coroner's office has witnessed an unprecedented spike in the number of corpses unclaimed by families who cannot afford the costs of a burial or cremation.

"The reason we are hearing from the families is the economic downturn," Los Angeles County Coroner's chief investigator Craig Harvey told AFP. "They tell us they don't have the means to afford funerals."

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The price of a funeral can be quite expensive, but this story is really a sobering reminder of just how much of an impact joblessness and lack of income can have on a family.

According to the story, remains of a body will stay preserved for up to a month, at which time it will be cremated. The ashes will stay on record for 2-3 years, in the event somebody from the family steps forward to claim the remains of the "body."

In the past 12 months, the coroner's office, which is responsible for handling bodies from homicides and suspicious deaths, carried out 36 percent more cremations than the previous year, jumping to 712 from 525. At the Los Angeles County morgue meanwhile, the cremation figure rose by 25 percent.
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(visit the link for the full news article)

Sad stuff. Have you heard anything about families being charged for the cremations and stuff when and if they finally DO claim the ashes? I guess it's a good thing they aren't just going after people and forcing them to pay for their relatives storage and cremation.

reply to post by KSPigpen


I think the article mentioned there is a fee for those who come to claim the body...around $100 or so.

They should all just be cremated to begin with. It saves so much space and money. Otherwise, the earth will just end up a huge graveyard.

They shouldn't charge much to cremate, if they do.