Commissioners OK end-of-life rites for unclaimed cremated remains
GEORGETOWN — Williamson County Commissioners Court members have voted to formally scatter the ashes of dead residents unclaimed by family to respectfully memorialize their lives while giving ceremonial closure to otherwise forgotten individuals.
In a unanimous vote at the Nov. 19 meeting, commissioners agreed to an interlocal agreement with Georgetown to scatter the ashes of indigent or abandoned persons in a portion of
It was my intent to take all of the cremains from this point going forward to this scatter garden.”
— County Judge Bill Gravell
International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery behind Southwestern University.
County Judge Bill Gravell noted the IOOF Cemetery already has a so-called “scatter garden” for such services thanks to the efforts of Trevor Suggs, a Georgetown teenager who thought up the idea for his Eagle Scout project.
“This is something that is personal to me,” Gravell said. “We have the cremated remains of individuals that my predecessor (Dan Gattis) very graciously took to Berry Springs Park (and Preserve in Georgetown), and would scatter the remains there. We have continued that practice.”
The county’s chief executive added, “However, about a year or a year-and-a-half ago, we were approached by a young man who was working on an Eagle Scout project who built a cremationremains location at the Georgetown cemetery — a scatter garden so family members and friends could scatter the remains. It was my intent to take all of the cremains from this point going forward to this scatter garden. That’s what I will do with the remains.”
Believed to be the first of its kind in Texas, the scatter garden includes a memorial wall to honor the forgotten dead. As part of the interlocal agreement with Georgetown, the county will pay the city $50 for each plaque installed into the wall to memorialize the dead whose ashes will be commingled with other cremains already at the site.
“I just feel like if we can scatter the remains at a consistent location and then do a simple act of putting their name on a wall, I think that’s important,” the judge added, later describing the move as “the honorable thing to do.”
Concerns that have been raised include the rising number of unclaimed bodies for which the county is responsible and the criteria for whom to honor if the deceased’s last act was a crime.
A regular fixture on commissioners’ agendas are the names of the dead needing to have their remains responsibly disposed of — a task the county is legally mandated to undertake under provisions of the state’s Health and Safety Code.
Take former Leander resident Eric Lee Stetzel, 53, as an example. In death, he made it onto the commissioners’ Nov. 19 agenda for formal approval of his cremation. Then, there’s Melvin Dale Deloach. Nearly one year ago in December, the 71-yearold passed away at a county respite facility with nobody found to claim his body. In death, he also gained entry onto the formal agenda on the Nov. 26 agenda as one slated for a cremation ceremony.
Evelyn R. Brown died under similar circumstances at a respite facility after breathing their last at the century mark, passing away in October at 103.
“The court also finds that there has been an investigation to obtain information regarding next of kin and the ability to pay for interment expense,” officials wrote of Brown in the standard, dry language preceding an order of cremation. “However, all attempts to contact any known next of kin of the deceased’s family have failed to identify any responsible or known next of kin with the ability to pay for necessary expenses.”
At the Nov. 26 meeting, Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey reported she had personally visited the scatter garden in Georgetown. She learned even more plaques honoring the forgotten dead can be installed on a screen at the site that can hold up to 120 if needed.
“I drove out to the cemetery to see it,” she said. “It’s very nice.”
A potential slippery slope
But then one comes across the agenda entry for Ensel Maclare-Urgelles, 48, who died at a Williamson County hospital May 27, and the idea of honoring the expired could get hazier.
According to an Austin Police Department press release, 911 dispatchers were alerted to a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex just before 2 a.m.
Ultimately forcing their entry after hearing a woman’s screams, police found Maclare “... on top of a female as the suspect was actively stabbing her with a knife,” investigators reported.
An officer then shot Maclare, who later succumbed to his injuries at a Williamson County hospital. The victim sustained life-threatening injuries, but was later reported to be in stable condition. Maclare was pronounced dead at 3:05 a.m., according to police.
“The court finds that this case involves either an abandoned body or is qualified for indigent burial,” a commissioners court order reads. “Therefore, the duty to cover the costs of interment falls to Williamson
County.” So, too, his inclusion among the honored at the Georgetown cemetery scatter garden.
County sees uptick in unclaimed bodies
All told, commissioners have approved four cremations of neglected corpses in a two-week span. The issue of logistics came up, suggesting the rate of unclaimed bodies in the county could exceed the number of cremated remains permitted monthly at the site.
“The city of Georgetown has specific requirements and a sequence that has to be followed around this,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Terry Cook said. “And since we as a government agency cannot pay for something in advance of receiving service, we have to be careful. And we can only do two a month, according to their requirements.”
Covey worried about running out of space at the cemetery, wondering how deceased people wind up on commissioners’ agenda for proper cremation: “I have a concern that this cemetery’s going to fill up at some point, and this will be a way to go forth. I’m just not sure how somebody gets on our agenda. Are they just unclaimed?”
After explaining the protocol involved, Gravell shared Covey’s concern. He attributed the growing number of indigent deaths as reflective of the county’s growth.
“We’ve all dealt with our justices of the peace and death inquests. We’re seeing more unclaimed decedents than we’ve ever seen, but we’re also seeing a number of death inquests for a JP that is really escalating exponentially,” Gravell said. “I don’t know that number, but it’s multiplied many times over. So I think the decedents that we’re seeing really are proportionate to the growth that we’re seeing.”
Williamson County is not alone in experiencing the uptick. In an April podcast, Viewpoints Radio reported that up to 150,000 bodies go unclaimed in the United States every year. Titled “The Forgotten Dead: America’s Epidemic of Unclaimed Bodies,” the broadcast featured Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam and co-author of “The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels,” which focuses on Los Angeles County.
“There is no federal agency to track or oversee the unclaimed,” Prickett said. “In the United States, death is a very local event. So when it comes to the time of disposition and determining whether or not somebody is going to be claimed, that is often happening at the local level.”
She zeroed in on the Lone Star State: “In smaller counties, you’ll often find that this is done by a local coroner or a sheriff’s office or a justice of the peace, for example. This is common in places like Texas, which have far fewer medical examiners than you might think.”
In August, commissioners budgeted some $309,000 for four death investigators to ease the workload of the county’s four justices of the peace. The investigators — one of whom is in a supervisory capacity — work closely with JPs in investigating deaths, tasked with visiting places where deaths occur and preparing needed reports from the scene.
