Thousands Die Unidentified

According to NaMus (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), every year in the United States there are 600,000 missing persons. Although many are located and found alive, tens of thousands still remain missing for more than one year.

It is also estimated according to NaMus that 4,400 unidentified bodies are found per year. Of these, all but about 1,000 remain unidentified for more than one year.

When I read these statistics, it was heartbreaking.

How does this happen in a society that is so technically connected?

It is because we are not people-connected.

When living in Key West I personally was acquainted with many of the homeless that lived there. Through their acquaintance and from reading what other social workers have commented on, there are reasons people fall through the cracks of society. What are they?

Off the Grid

Many of the homeless choose to go off the grid, with little or no identification. Some have had problems with law enforcement and addiction. Others, for personal reasons, cut all ties of any family past or present. Many with addictions, give up on society and themselves, walking away from everything. Suffering from guilt, shame, and active addiction many see no way out of staying off society’s grid.

Victims of Crime or Accidents

Sadly, there are others missing for months and years that once found are decayed with little remains to identify them. Some of these are victims of a violent crime. Others that are found are determined to be accidents that may have occurred while the person was alone such as hiking in an isolated area away from the general population. Many of these are entered into the NaMus system, mentioned above, which has resources to trace any leads left in finding out their identity.

Loners

Another category is people that live in society but choose to isolate themselves. They have a name, but no next of kin can be found. They may live alone with little contact with the outside world. Yes, this can and does exist in our modern society.

Going Forward

With little or no identification, or an alias, families or next of kin are difficult to locate. Many coroners throughout the country can only keep the body for so long. Every area has different time factors and limits as to how long they can hold a body.

Many are unidentified after all leads are exhausted to find a next of kin. The body is then picked up by a local funeral director and transported to what you may know as a “potter’s field.” This would also include people with a name but no next of kin to identify the body. There are many such fields throughout the country.

A potter’s field is a plot of land set aside primarily for the burial of indigent and unidentified persons. The biggest potter’s field in the United States is a small island across from Manhattan, New York, known as “Hart Island.”

Unknown to many people, Hart Island holds approximately one million dead from its inception in 1869 (Lost in the Pandemic: Inside New York’s City Mass Graveyard on Hart Island, TIME, 11/18/2020). The article mentioned here is a must-read that details the history and current burials to date. It is gripping.

Not all buried on the island are unidentified. Some have names but their families had no money to bury them anywhere else. Others include victims of tuberculosis, AIDS, and the Spanish Flu. However, noteworthy is that some bodies have been recovered and moved off the island after families discovered their loved ones were buried there.

What is the greatest tragedy here? It’s not the grave itself. We all are dust and to dust we return. The travesty is how human life is viewed. Have they become just another number on a casket with no name? We give more attention at times to news highlighting UFOs (unidentified flying objects) — seriously. These were real people. Their life no doubt for many years was just like yours. Living, laughing, working, eating, sleeping, etc. No doubt they never expected their life to end in such a way.

With no next to kin to identify them, who cries for them? Who mourns them?

For those with a name and no traceable family, the same applies. The more I investigate this subject, the more my heart aches for such ones.

Unfortunately, a number of years ago my mother wanted to know her ancestry. Together we looked online for her family name on the ancestry sites. What we found was shocking. As I read the last names of deceased persons with her last name, one name and description jumped out. It was her brother. She did not know he had died!

My mother was from a family of ten children. None of them were close. However, her one brother was always a loner. He kept to himself and had little contact with any family members. It was Uncle Willie.

We found Uncle Willie’s obituary on a Friday night. We had to wait till Monday morning to identify him with the Cleveland coroner’s office. It was him.

I won’t go into any further detail here. Below is a poem about how Uncle Willie lived and died.

What is my point in writing this article? My point is to remind all of us to value people. Treat everyone as important. If you have an elderly person that lives alone, without intruding on their privacy, make sure they are okay. Show an interest to those living on the fringes of life. Everyone wants to feel loved, even if they do not say so.

The golden rule is not old. There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.

Here is the poem I mentioned. Who Cries For Me?

This article was previously published on Medium.com.