Comments | little_details: outcome of body w/ no one to claim it (and timeline)

robling_t in little_details

outcome of body w/ no one to claim it (and timeline)

May 25, 2011 15:35

setting: contemporary, Cook County, IL (Chicago)
searched: county website's page for duties of the medical examiner; LD tags on funerals and suicide ( Read more... )

~forensics (misc), ~law (misc), ~law enforcement (misc), usa: illinois, ~suicide, ~funerals

Comments 4

teacup_carousel May 26 2011, 08:05:00 UTC

Just asked my mama who works in a hospital in Phoenix and she says the X can be filled in with anywhere from 1-2 weeks depending on where you die. Some places apparently can be significantly shorter and some communities may choose to hold for longer depending on moral standards or funding available. But that's just before burial - of course if relatives find out after the burial date they have every right to reclaim and move the body to a place of their choosing (providing they are willing to pay for it ( ... )

lilacsigil May 26 2011, 11:02:47 UTC

Nobody has to "get stuck" with a corpse, though costs of burial or cremation will be taken out of the deceased person's estate if they have one.

marycatelli May 26 2011, 12:11:17 UTC

I once watched (online) a discussion about finding the family of a suicide who had told the most insane stories about his family. Nothing he said could be relied on for help.

They did manage to find family. They were looking for weeks.

thistle_chaser May 26 2011, 15:45:29 UTC

In NY, but might apply elsewhere:

What information I've been able to turn up regarding this jurisdiction says that there would be a pro forma autopsy because of the suicide

No one in my family had talked to my father for maybe 20 years before he died. He died on a friend's couch, so they could be pretty sure it wasn't suicide. They did an autopsy on him anyway.

It took a few weeks for them police to track me down (and I never did find out how). Once I replied that we were in fact related, I had to take care of the body, there was no option for the county keeping it. (He was a bad man with many problems, he hurt my mother, sister, and myself a lot, I wanted nothing to do with him before or after his death.)

As a side note that might be helpful: You can't donate a body to science after it's been through an autopsy, but because we tried, we got a discount on cremation and tossing his ashes into the ocean. Apparently when you donate a body to science, they'll cover the cost of getting rid of it once they're done with it.