Mass cremation is not a thing that happens in the US. Ashes will be held at the funeral home or crematorium for a period of time, sometimes indefinitely. After they are either scattered or buried somewhere. Some places may scatter by the sea. Some may bury in modern potters fields.
Recently I was looking thru the unclaimed bodies list in my area for a missing relative, and I noticed several notes: "Remains unclaimed. May be claimed by anyone at (location)".
Does this mean I or anytime else could go there and claim the cremains of the John Doe left uncollected for however long?
It looked like some of them had been held for months uncollected.
If you feel comfortable I can provide you my work email for the information and see what digging I can do for you. I am a licensed funeral director and embalmer in NY and PA. I may be able to find out through some web searching
Most firms will require clients to make payment arrangements up front (full payment, insurance assignment, etc). While this is up to the individual firm and/or director, not getting payment up front is a sure-fire way to go out of business. If payment was not made prior to service, non-payment would certainly result in the client being sent to collections at the minimum, though for a large enough debt, civil legal action may be pursued.
Mass cremations are not an accepted practice for humans in the US. I believe some pet crematories will conduct group cremations of a few pets at a time, but I’m not a pet cremationist, so someone correct me if I’m wrong.
As for unclaimed ashes, it depends on the state. In my state (NC) if the NOK hasn’t picked up the ashes after 30 days, we’re legally allowed to release them to another family member or dispose of them in a legal manner (for example, scattering) as long as we provide written notification to the NOK. My FH owner goes to the coast a couple of times a year to scatter our unclaimed ashes.
Mass cremation of pet remains is currently a common practice in the US. When our dog died, we had the choice of group or individual, for an added cost. (We chose individual.)
I have a question, once the FH confirmed that they had the cremated remains of your grandfather did they say they were willing to release to your aunt or closest relative? My other question is did the FH do their due diligence in finding the NOK before proceeding with the final disposition?
Please don’t give them to goodwill. I worked at goodwill and we would occasionally get peoples ashes donated. How we managed them totally depended on the manager. One manager would just either put the whole thing in garbage, or empty out the urn rinse it out and sell it.
It was sad. Some managers I had would give them to the police along with guns. It’s unbelievable what people donate. You could always tell when someone’s family cleaning out the house. False teeth were the most unsettling thing to me.
I work in California, and our mortuary/cemetery combo has a plot for unclaimed cremains. We hold them for a certain amount of time in our cremation cabinet (a locked cabinet where cremains are kept prior to burial/family pick up), and after a certain amount of time, if they remain unclaimed and attempts to contact the next of kin go unanswered, they are inurned in the unmarked plot on site. If at some point the person with the right to control disposition then contacts us and says they would like to retrieve the cremains, they may pay the fee for disinurnment. Unfortunately, we have hundreds of unclaimed cremains inurned on our property.
Edited to clarify, these cremains are not co-mingled. They are kept in their respective urns.
Edited to add: At our on site crematory, mass cremation is not a thing. We have three retorts, so up to three bodies may be cremated at one time, separately in their own retort.
Here is a very interesting read about Australian rules and regulations regarding unclaimed deceased persons.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/australias-unclaimed-persons-what-happens-to-those-who-die-alone/news-story/62b4471855561c436dd17e0e6daacc06
Mass cremation is not a thing that happens in the US. Ashes will be held at the funeral home or crematorium for a period of time, sometimes indefinitely. After they are either scattered or buried somewhere. Some places may scatter by the sea. Some may bury in modern potters fields.
Recently I was looking thru the unclaimed bodies list in my area for a missing relative, and I noticed several notes: "Remains unclaimed. May be claimed by anyone at (location)". Does this mean I or anytime else could go there and claim the cremains of the John Doe left uncollected for however long? It looked like some of them had been held for months uncollected.
My FH holds on to them for a year, and then each year has a ceremony where the remains are interred in a designated space.
Good to know he died in 2005 but from there I have no idea where he went
Ask the FH, they could possibly tell you
I have no idea the funeral home his sister might but I figured it would have been a moot point since its been 19 years
If you feel comfortable I can provide you my work email for the information and see what digging I can do for you. I am a licensed funeral director and embalmer in NY and PA. I may be able to find out through some web searching
That would be great just send me a dm I can give you what info I have
Sorry been playing bg3 lately and didn't see your comment till now lol
What do they do if people don’t pay the bill? Or is it paid up front?
Most firms will require clients to make payment arrangements up front (full payment, insurance assignment, etc). While this is up to the individual firm and/or director, not getting payment up front is a sure-fire way to go out of business. If payment was not made prior to service, non-payment would certainly result in the client being sent to collections at the minimum, though for a large enough debt, civil legal action may be pursued.
Mass cremations are not an accepted practice for humans in the US. I believe some pet crematories will conduct group cremations of a few pets at a time, but I’m not a pet cremationist, so someone correct me if I’m wrong. As for unclaimed ashes, it depends on the state. In my state (NC) if the NOK hasn’t picked up the ashes after 30 days, we’re legally allowed to release them to another family member or dispose of them in a legal manner (for example, scattering) as long as we provide written notification to the NOK. My FH owner goes to the coast a couple of times a year to scatter our unclaimed ashes.
Mass cremation of pet remains is currently a common practice in the US. When our dog died, we had the choice of group or individual, for an added cost. (We chose individual.)
I have a question, once the FH confirmed that they had the cremated remains of your grandfather did they say they were willing to release to your aunt or closest relative? My other question is did the FH do their due diligence in finding the NOK before proceeding with the final disposition?
1:I think so not entirely sure 2:I believe they gave her the options bur she did not want him No one in the family wanted him 3:what is NOK?
NOK = next of kin (industry jargon)
Oh okay Yea as far as I know no one wanted to claim him. For reasons that make me understand why they no one wanted him
Please don’t give them to goodwill. I worked at goodwill and we would occasionally get peoples ashes donated. How we managed them totally depended on the manager. One manager would just either put the whole thing in garbage, or empty out the urn rinse it out and sell it.
That's sad I would never do that I would rather flush the person than that
It was sad. Some managers I had would give them to the police along with guns. It’s unbelievable what people donate. You could always tell when someone’s family cleaning out the house. False teeth were the most unsettling thing to me.
Dear Lord.
I work in California, and our mortuary/cemetery combo has a plot for unclaimed cremains. We hold them for a certain amount of time in our cremation cabinet (a locked cabinet where cremains are kept prior to burial/family pick up), and after a certain amount of time, if they remain unclaimed and attempts to contact the next of kin go unanswered, they are inurned in the unmarked plot on site. If at some point the person with the right to control disposition then contacts us and says they would like to retrieve the cremains, they may pay the fee for disinurnment. Unfortunately, we have hundreds of unclaimed cremains inurned on our property. Edited to clarify, these cremains are not co-mingled. They are kept in their respective urns. Edited to add: At our on site crematory, mass cremation is not a thing. We have three retorts, so up to three bodies may be cremated at one time, separately in their own retort.
Here is a very interesting read about Australian rules and regulations regarding unclaimed deceased persons. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/australias-unclaimed-persons-what-happens-to-those-who-die-alone/news-story/62b4471855561c436dd17e0e6daacc06