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Unclaimed remains removed from Danbury funeral home highlight problem

Written by DeadGirl
Thursday, 09 September 2004
September 9, 2004 DANBURY, Conn. -- The recent removal of 87 sets of cremated remains from a Danbury funeral home highlights a not-so-uncommon problem in the funeral industry: relatives not claiming their loved ones' ashes. State and local officials last week removed the remains from the former Tomlinson Homestead on Main Street, which the state closed two years ago because of an operating scandal. Crews are dismantling the 150-year-old city landmark to make way for an auto parts store. Some of the remains have been unclaimed for more than 25 years, The News-Times of Danbury reported. All the abandoned remains are in the possession of state officials. Former Tomlinson Homestead owner David C. Harrison recently acknowledged having an "accumulation of unclaimed remains" in his vault, said local funeral director Dan Jowdy, who is on the state board that oversees the funeral industry. "He came to me knowing my position on the state board. He said he wanted to see to it that they got a proper burial," Jowdy said. Unclaimed "cremains" are not uncommon in the funeral home industry. Jowdy said state law is silent on what funeral directors are supposed to do with ashes that aren't claimed by families after cremation. "People tell you they are eventually coming over, but something happens in their life and they put it on the back burner," he said. The number of the cremains removed from the former Tomlinson Homestead did surprise at least one area funeral director. "We do have identified cremains going back 40 years," said Rodney Bourdeau of the Cornell Memorial Home, "but not in that number." Bourdeau estimated he had a half-dozen unclaimed cremains in his vault. "The number can vary by the funeral home. We probably have 30 sets," said Robert Mastropietro, a funeral director with Hull Funeral Service, which has parlors in Danbury, Bethel and New Milford. Jowdy, who serves on the Connecticut Board of Examiners of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, said the boxes containing the cremains were all properly tagged and identified. Most date from the 1980s and 1990s, but some are even older. Officials are asking anyone who believes the Tomlinson Homestead was in possession of a loved one's ashes to contact the Danbury town clerk's office. Harrison took over operations at the Tomlinson Homestead home after his father died in 1983. The funeral home was closed in March 2002 and Harrison surrendered his embalming license after a state investigation found numerous problems, including the discovery of four bodies that had not been disposed of in a timely manner. State officials also determined that Harrison performed marriages through 2002, even though he was not legally a justice of the peace after 1997. The newspaper could not reach Harrison or his lawyer for comment Wednesday. Jowdy said the state is holding the cremains and will keep them until Oct. 15, when any that are still unclaimed will be interred at a local cemetery. The names will be kept on file should any questions about the disposition arise later, he said. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--unclaimedremains0909sep08,0,4549859.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“Of comfort no man speak Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth; Let's choose executors and talk of wills.”

King Richard II, Act III, Scen