Kane County coroner to entomb unclaimed remains of 16 people
Kane County Coroner Rob Russell has arranged for the unclaimed, cremated remains of 16 people to be entombed in a St. Charles Township mausoleum in late May, marking the fourth such service since 2013.
"With the state hurting financially, we have to find alternatives to take care of those who are indigent," Russell said in a media release Tuesday. "Too many times, family members wind up walking away from the responsibility for burial. With this township partnership, some of that cost has been mitigated."
In 2013, Russell organized the burial and entombment of 41 unclaimed remains found in a storage room at the coroner's office. They had been left there by Russell's predecessor.
St. Charles Township officials offered the option of an empty, unused tomb that had already been paid for. Initially, 47 cremains had been found at the office's storage area and families were reunited with six sets of cremains - one set was shipped to Australia and a father received the remains of his 2-month-old child more than 25 years after the infant's sudden death, according to Russell's office.
Other ceremonies were held in 2015 and 2017. This year's ceremony will be at 10 a.m. May 31 at the St. Charles Township Cemetery North mausoleum, 1200 N. Fifth Ave., St. Charles.
Russell hopes the cremains can be claimed by relatives before the service. The following is a list of cremains and their death dates: Susan Visser, Aug. 20, 2016; Michael Fisher, April 11, 2017; Irene Hughes, Aug. 8, 2017; Ilse Bauman, Sept. 5, 2017; Melvin Blanton, Dec. 22, 2017; David Moncatch, Jan. 21, 2018; Winifred Underwood, Aug. 18, 2009; Rebecca Nolan, June 27, 2018; Miguel Espinoza, Aug. 3, 2018; Earlene Barr, Dec. 6, 2013; Frank Fleit, Nov. 5, 2018; Linda Schultz, Nov. 10, 2018; Laura Frederick, Nov. 8, 2018; Jeffrey Haff, Dec. 2, 2018; Debra Caston, Nov. 29, 2018; and Pornthip Phommek, Jan. 2, 2019. For more information, call the coroner's office at (630) 232-3535.