AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – Almost people like to remember that subsequently they die, they'll be memorialized at a service, surrounded by grieving family members, but that'southward not the case for everyone.

Worcester Funeral Director Peter Stefan is at the forefront of a growing problem; burial hundreds of people who dice every twelvemonth, with no family unit and no money.

They're referred to as "unclaimed," a label for someone who dies without family unit, or whose family waives any claim to them. Unclaimed bodies are treated as "indigent," someone who died in poverty.

Over the past twelvemonth solitary, Stefan told the I-Team he has cached between 40 to fifty unclaimed bodies. "I've had nine here in the past calendar week and a half, and I accept some other one today they called me on, plus this woman we picked up yesterday. No coin, no family."

The Part of the Medical Examiner must hold unclaimed bodies until they find a funeral director willing to pick them up. If the office tin can't identify a torso, can't find next of kin, or the adjacent of kin waives all claim to the body, they then turn it over to the Department of Transitional Help.

According to data the I-Squad obtained from the Department of Public Condom, the Office of the Medical Examiner referred 78 unclaimed bodies to the DTA in 2017, 72 in 2016, 79 in 2015, and 85 in 2014.

Stefan said that DTA reimburses funeral directors $i,100 for indigent burials, but in order to qualify for the reimbursement, they tin't spend more than than $iii,500, which barely covers the cost of a basic burial. A family's assets are besides counted against that cap. "When it comes to a death, it becomes a money consequence, and the funeral directors are slowly but surely backing off, non going to practice them, now what are y'all doing to do?"

Senate President Harriette Chandler is familiar with the event, and has been working to make changes for years. "Our concern is the fact that it costs approximately up to $3,000 to bury a body, and if yous're indigent, nobody is going to pay for that $three,000, even so, if you're indigent, you would exist able to be cremated for $500."

Cremation is a much cheaper option, simply under state police force, it requires a signature from next of kin. If a funeral director picks up an unclaimed trunk and tin can't find the side by side of kin, they can either pay for the burial with the money provided by the land, and blot the residue of the price, or store the body in a refrigerated infinite, in hopes that a family unit member volition eventually turn up.

Senate President Chandler proposed a budget amendment last twelvemonth to increment reimbursements for indigent burials, and allow funeral directors to cremate unclaimed bodies under sure circumstances. The measure was vetoed by Governor Bakery.

Senate President Chandler told the I-Squad, the consequence needs to exist addressed. "We can't but turn our head and be in denial, stick our heads in the sand and say, this isn't my problem, it's all of our problem."

Governor Baker sent the I-Team the following statement about vetoing the measure.

"The Baker-Polito Assistants was pleased to suggest a balanced budget, including a new policy at the Function of the Principal Medical Examiner that reduced the number of unclaimed bodies pending burial by increasing compensation to funeral homes."

Department of Public Prophylactic spokesperson Felix Browne told the I-Squad, the Department of Transitional Assistance started an incentive programme in January of 2016. Under the program, funeral directors are given an additional $one,000 on top of the $1,100 that DTA provides to remove unclaimed bodies from the Medical Examiner'due south Function.

Browne said prior the plan, bodies were left at the Role of the Medical Examiner morgue for an average of 43.9 days. Afterward the program started, the average length of time from request to removal from the morgue decreased to 8.8 days.

Even so, Stefan told the I-Team the average burial costs at to the lowest degree $3,000, so while the boosted $ane,000 may help, information technology still may non be enough to entice other funeral directors to pick upwards unclaimed bodies.

Unclaimed bodies referred to DTA:

2014 – 85
2015 – 79
2016 – 72
2017 – 78

(These are the numbers of unclaimed bodies that the Medical Examiner's Function referred to the Department of Transitional Assistance. The numbers do not reflect the combined indigent burials that accept gone through DTA.)

Per Felix Browne, Department of Public Safety

Total Indigent Burials in Massachusetts

2014= 3,519
2015= 3,923
2016= five,218
2017= 4,553 (Equally of 12/18/17)

-Per Elissa Snook, Department of Public Health

Length of time indigent bodies remained in morgues:

Jan. 2016 – 22 bodies, boilerplate stay 37 days
Feb. 2016 – two bodies, average stay 61 days
March 2016 – 6 bodies, boilerplate stay 18 days
April 2016 -3 bodies, average stay nineteen days
May 2016 – 5 bodies, average stay 25 days
June 2016 – 4 bodies, boilerplate stay 10 days
July 2016 – 6 bodies, average stay 14 days
August 2016 – 8 bodies, average stay 10 days
September 2016 – 9 bodies, average stay three days
Oct 2016 – 10 bodies, boilerplate stay 3 days
November 2016 – ix bodies, average stay viii days
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January 2017 – 5 bodies, average stay three days
February 2017 – 10 bodies, average stay 7 days
March 2017 – 6 bodies, boilerplate stay 6 days
April 2017 – 4 bodies, average stay 4 days
May 2017 – 12 bodies, average stay 6 days
June 2017 -nine bodies, boilerplate stay 6 days
July 2017 -five bodies, average stay five days
August 2017 -8 bodies, average stay viii days
Sept. 2017 -7 bodies, average stay 4 days
Oct. 2017 -ix bodies, average stay nine days

1/15/16 – Date new system put in place to shorten menses of time bodies are left at the morgue.

-Per Felix Browne, Department of Public Prophylactic

(Story originally posted on Feb 22, 2018)