‘It is still troubling how many people are unclaimed:’ Coroner has ceremony to put remains of 47 people to rest

The ashes of 47 people were laid to a dignified rest Thursday morning in a mausoleum in the St. Charles Township North Cemetery.

The remains were of people who were not claimed by friends or relatives, from either the Kane County coroner’s office or the Yurs funeral homes in Geneva and St. Charles.

It is the fifth time Kane County Coroner Rob Russell has arranged such a ceremony. He said there are about 300 boxes of ashes, and one vault is full.

“This (being unclaimed) is still the exception, but it is still troubling how many people are unclaimed,” Russell said.

The Rev. Talaat McNeely from Purpose City Church in Aurora conducted the ceremony.

Twenty-nine of Thursday’s entombments were of remains from the coroner’s office. Many of them were homeless people, he said.

Russell said sometimes families cannot afford burial. Sometimes, relatives don’t want to accept the responsibility. In other cases, the coroner could not find any relatives.

Russell has put all the names from his office on findagrave.com, a website where people can search for burial information.

This year’s people died between December 2021 and January 2024. They are Pamela S. Ciancio, Artis Hicks Jr, Michelle R. Luebbing, Roy Zvi Rachovitsky, Kevin W. Gordon, Emilio Perez, Ar Min, Michael Robinson, William C. Martin, Robert M. Sroka, June Jackson, Pierre L. Johnson, Eudviges Pena-Tijerina, Jerry D. Earl, Osmin Hernandez-Melendez, Thomas L. O’Connell, David Salerno, Michael Gardner, Eugene Pierce, James Moore, Michael Koop, Rick Keeling, Grace G. Spencer, William P. Fiefer, James L. McFate, Benjamin Chew, James L. Baughman, Jose L. Sanchez, and an infant with the last name Pearson.

Russell began entombing cremains in 2013. When he took office in late 2012, he found 47 boxes of cremains stored in a closet next to files, office supplies and Halloween decorations. Some dated back to the 1950s. The first entombment included 40 of those boxes and 121 from funeral homes.

If someone later wants to claim the entombed ashes, they have two options.

The first is to contact Russell and wait for the next time the crypts are opened. His number is (630) 232-3535

Or they can contact Brooks Ronzheimer, superintendent of the township’s cemeteries, at (630) 584-8699. If they do that, they will have to pay for having the crypt opened and closed.