COLUMBIA --- The recession has created a trend, documented across the country, of bodies collecting in morgues because families cannot afford to purchase caskets and hold burial services.
The National Funeral Directors Association estimates the cost of a funeral to be $7,323, excluding flowers, cemetery, monument or marker costs.
Aiken County has long held pauper burial services in May. The ceremonies are held for people who were cremated after their bodies went unclaimed. Between May 2007 and May 2008, the county held its annual ceremony for five people. For the next 12-month period, there were seven bodies.
This year the county is on pace to be higher. Since May, the body count is already up to four, according to the Aiken County coroner's staff.
"We encourage families and next of kin to do what they can, and if worse comes to worst, I'll sit down with them and discuss what their situation is," said Coroner Tim Carlton, the president of the South Carolina Coroner's Association. He said South Carolina requires any money that belongs to the deceased to go toward funeral arrangements.
Mr. Carlton said the battered economy has likely fueled the increase in unclaimed bodies, but he also pointed to the increasing tendency of family members to live far away from one another.
In a recent Aiken County case, a man's family lived in California and said they had not seen him for 30 years, so the man received a pauper's burial, Mr. Carlton said.
Numbers are higher in Beaufort County, too, Coroner Ed Allen said. So much so, he sent a memo about the issue to the county administrator Wednesday. Mr. Allen said he's also been consulting with Mr. Carlton about opening a pauper's cemetery in Beaufort County.
Mr. Allen said his office has had 19 bodies for an extended period -- some for more than the 30 days required by law. Five ultimately went unclaimed. Data from last year were not available, but Mr. Allen said this year showed a considerable increase in burials handled through his office.
Reach Sarita Chourey at (803) 727-4257 or sarita.chourey@morris.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
So you can make comments on this story but not on the furniture store owner. Things that make you go him.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yep, very strange,again its not what but who......
I just checked back on the other 2 stories about that case and you cannot comment on those either. I've seen worse crimes with death and very nasty comments concerning them by the readers. So this is very strange. Also I bet everyone thought "O BOY" was stealing those trailors.
Perhaps the AC realized that people were using this mans death to further their own personal agendas and racist ideas...he was a respected person in the community whether you liked him or not ...respect for the family is paramount. He seemed to have his own demons to deal with .....thank you AC.
Yep VERY strange! From experience, should look into some of the others. Even the ones married into! GREEDY!
Family members can donate the deceased bodies to science (medical schools, etc) for no cost. These gifts to science do more to advance knowledge and improve life than cremation. In addition MCG has a very nice service for the donated bodies at the end of the year.
Is it a possible glitch in the system?
Donating to science is exactly what I was thinking too.....
I am glad the AC is not allowing Jaay's memory to be smeared. He was my neighbor at one time and I bought a lot of things for my house from his store. I would like more details on this also as it seems so out of character for the man/neighbor I remember.