Montgomery County breaks ground on mausoleum for its unclaimed dead
For decades a Montgomery County Coroner’s Office storage room has served as the final resting place for the dead that no one wanted. Nearly 300 rectangle boxes containing the cremated remains of unclaimed individuals, including four miscarried or stillborn children and four nameless people, with nowhere to go. The oldest unclaimed remains are a local man who died in 1988. A record 61 people went unclaimed last year, according to Montgomery County coroner data. As of August, 29 people had gone unclaimed this year. Do you recognize a name here? Bucks and Montgomery counties have hundreds of unclaimed dead Dr. Janine Darby learned about the unclaimed dead numbers while attending a 2023 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new coroner offices in Eagleville. While touring the center, she found the room where the cremated remains of those whose deaths had been investigated by the coroner’s office were stored. It bothered her. A lot.“This was not a dignified resting place,” Darby said. When she took over as county coroner in January 2024, she made it a priority to fix it. Two years later, Montgomery County has broken ground for what will be one of only a handful of permanent final resting places for
Montgomery County, PA · 7h
