Paying funerals is impossible for many poor families

DETROIT – Darlene Hardison would have liked to have funerals for her father and uncle and bury them in tombs marked in a Michigan cemetery. But she and her family could only get enough money to cremate Hoover Heags and Arthur Hardison, then left the funeral remains at Detroit 's funeral.

Authorities later discovered that the remains cremated by Heags and Hardison were cremated. In bags, boxes and other containers inside Cantrell Funeral Home, one of the two funeral services police and state licensing licenses state licensees are investigating vestiges allegedly poorly stored. Heags had died about a year earlier. Hardison has been dead for about two years.

"Funds were limited … to pay the bills and we just did not have the money to cover everything we needed," Darlene Hardison said in a cemetery where a service The commemoration was held for some of those whose responsible authorities found the currently closed Cantrell Funeral Home located on the east side of Detroit. "We could just do a cremation and that was it," Hardison said, wiping his tears.

The story of Hardison shows how the funeral homes currently under surveillance have been able to have so many remains and why families not noticed. In the United States, many poor families have been deducted from funerals and burials. People who can not afford these services end up with the least expensive option: cremate the remains of a loved one and leave it to a funeral home to get rid of it. Others may simply simply abandon the remains of their loved ones, leaving the coroners and burial homes to take care of the cremation and their elimination.

How to pay for indigent burials is an issue that has blocked local governments across the United States. Many states have programs that help pay for burials and cremations. Michigan pays up to $ 365 for cremations and $ 485 for burials without memorial service. Last year, a coroner from western Illinois resigned after being criticized for his practice of keeping the remains of poor people until their loved ones could pay 1 $ 1,000; State officials indicated that they had the necessary funds to cover the burial expenses.

In Detroit, where more than a third of people live in poverty, traditional funeral services including funeral parlor services, burial in a cemetery, and tombstone can be as high as $ 5,000. low-end, according to the site Parting.com. Direct burials without frilas cost about $ 1,300 or more. Estimates for simple cremations without services and memorials start at around $ 650.

It can be difficult for many families to find hundreds or even thousands of dollars to bury someone in Detroit, when US Census Bureau figures indicate that the median household income was less than 30,000 USD. in 2017, compared to more than $ 61,000 nationwide. Faced with the costs, some families have little choice but to leave the body of a loved one to someone else.

"The idea of ​​paying $ 6,000, $ 7,000 to $ 8,000 for funeral services was really impossible for many," said Sara Marsden, spokeswoman. For US-based Funerals Online, a consumer information website and a directory of funeral homes, said. "There is no life insurance or burial insurance that can start and cover the cost."

The Associated Press could not find any data on the number of remains or cremans abandoned by families in Detroit funeral homes. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office, where Detroit is located, says it's burial about 125 unclaimed bodies each year.

Authorities closed the Cantrell Funeral Home last April. In October, the authorities received information that led them to the mummified tomb of 10 fetuses and a full-term infant in the ceiling of the building. A few days later, the remains of 63 fetuses were removed from the Perry Funeral Home in Detroit. Then, in December, a suburban cemetery closed after the authorities discovered the remains of 300 fetuses and infants – handled by Perry – in leaky plastic containers.

The Associated Press has not been able to find a phone list of Raymond Cantrell, owner of Funeral Cantrell. Home when his license was suspended last April. The AP left a message Thursday asking for a comment to a spokesman for the Perry Funeral Home.

In Indiana, Linda Znachko, a stay-at-home mom, began helping out at the funeral through her ministry called He Knows Your Name. Znachko found a need after learning of the remains of a baby in a garbage bin in Indianapolis in 2009; it turned out that a funeral home had thrown the remains with others after the bankruptcy. Znachko was shocked to learn that unclaimed remains would be buried in a mass grave.

"We live in America … I said," Why do we even have these? ", Said Znachko.