The Kane County coroner is looking for relatives of 16 people whose unclaimed cremated remains will be entombed in a St. Charles Township mausoleum in late May.
This will be the fourth such service for unclaimed remains Kane County Coroner Rob Russell has held since 2013.
“With the state hurting financially, we have to find alternatives to take care of those who are indigent,” Russell said in a news release. “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 the unclaimed remains of 41 people found in a storage room in his office. The remains had been left there by a predecessor, he said.
Other ceremonies for unclaimed remains were held in 2015 and 2017.
Russell said he'd like to see all townships with cemeteries partner with his office in the future for such services.
St. Charles Township officials offered an empty tomb that had already been paid for to the coroner for use for unclaimed remains.
This year’s ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. May 31 at the St. Charles Township Cemetery North Mausoleum, 1200 N. Fifth Ave., St Charles.
The coroner’s office hopes remains of the following people can be claimed by relatives before the service: Susan Visser, who died Aug. 20, 2016; Michael Fisher, who died April 11, 2017; Irene Hughes, who died Aug. 8, 2017; Ilse Bauman, who died Sept. 5, 2017; Melvin Blanton, who died Dec. 22, 2017; David Moncatch, who died Jan. 21, 2018; Winifred Underwood, who died Aug. 18, 2009; Rebecca Nolan, who died June 27, 2018; Miguel Espinoza, who died Aug. 3, 2018; Earlene Barr, who died Dec. 6, 2013; Frank Fleit, who died Nov. 5, 2018; Linda Schultz, who died Nov. 10, 2018; Laura Frederick, who died Nov. 8, 2018; Jeffrey Haff, who died Dec. 2, 2018; Debra Caston, who died Nov. 29, 2018; and Pornthip Phommek, who died Jan. 2, 2019.
For more information, call the coroner's office at 630-232-3535.