LA County to Honor & Bury 1,865 Unclaimed Dead from 2021

Some 1,865 unclaimed people who died in 2021 will be laid to rest Thursday in an annual, non-denominational interfaith ceremony by L.A. County.

The Board of Supervisors, along with the Department of Health Services, the Office of Decedent Affairs and Los Angeles General Medical Center Chaplains, will run the service at the L.A. County Cemetery.

“We don’t know enough about the people we are burying here today to really do them justice,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said during last year’s ceremony. “But we know many of them were unhoused. Some are children. Some were immigrants to this country, far from families who loved and missed them. Almost all of them were very poor.”

She added, “For one reason or another, they had no loved ones who could claim their bodies when they passed.”

Hahn said she recognized the pain, disappointment and loneliness these individuals were likely to have felt.

On Thursday, local faith leaders will preside over the burial of decedents in a single communal grave, offering an opportunity to pay respects to individuals who died as a result of the pandemic and other causes.

The Ceremony of the Unclaimed Dead is open to the public.

Since 1896, the ceremony has honored those who died but went unclaimed. The Office of Decedent Affairs manages cremation and burial for indigent/unclaimed individuals who die within the county’s jurisdiction. These individuals may be homeless or have no next of kin.

There is a three-year waiting period between the year of death and burial to allow family members to claim cremated remains.

Shortly before the ceremony, ashes are placed in a single communal grave with a marker indicating the year of cremation.

The Office of Decedent Affairs works with families to facilitate remains retrieval before burial.