Pallbearers carry a casket containing the ashes of 13 people whose unclaimed remains were found in a closet at the Peoria County Coroner’s Office. The burial was a collaboration between OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, Coroner Jamie Harwood and area funeral homes. The Catholic Cemetery Association of Peoria donated the plot. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

Some mourners brought flowers while others dabbed their eyes during a funeral for 13 people at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria last Thursday.

None of the 35 people on hand had ever met any of the deceased, whose previously forgotten remains were interred in a single plot.

The burial was a collaboration between Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood, OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center and area funeral homes to honor the 13 whose bodies had been left unclaimed at the coroner’s office.

Their cremated remains were buried together in a casket in a plot donated by the Catholic Cemetery Association of Peoria.

Harwood said he discovered the remains on a closet shelf at the coroner’s office after he took office in December 2016.

A former coroner has disputed that any remains were left in the office.

“Literally, they were tucked in the back of a closet,” Harwood said. “Sometimes it’s a daunting task to find next of kin, and I have to just wonder if that was the issue with some of these. Over time, they more than likely just got forgotten.”

However, the remains came to be in the coroner’s office, Harwood said they deserved a final resting place. The earliest remains dated back to 1986.

“All these people lived a life. They all had some purpose on this earth,” Harwood said before the service. “It’s tragic that they don’t have anyone to give them a final resting place, so what a blessing it is for us to be able to do this for them.

OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center Deacon Joe Knapp officiates at a burial service of the ashes of 13 people whose unclaimed remains were found at the Peoria County Coroner’s Office. Coroner Jamie Harwood, standing next to Knapp, collaborated with OSF and area funeral homes to arrange the burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

During the service, Harwood read a list of the 13 people being buried: Harold Pulliam, Tomah Attaway, William Brown, Daniel R. Harrington, John Ridgeway, Ruth Cumming, Lois M. Wade, John A. Gaddis, Evelyn Lane, Joyce P. Lair, Connie Lewis, Robert Lupfer and Robert Bray.

Presiding over the service, Deacon Joe Knapp of OSF Saint Francis, said of the deceased, “We trust today that God has fully forgiven them, and whatever faults or failings they may have had in this life are erased….We honor them by lifting them up and trusting that they’ve been restored to the fullness of eternal life.”

As the deacon concluded the service, Eymarde Lawler began a tearful impromptu reading of the 23rd Psalm, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

“That was not planned,” Lawler said after. “I just felt compelled in the moment. I just had my Bible with me, and I decided to read it.”

Lawler said she had no connection to any of the deceased but wanted to pay her respects. “My dad, Francis Chamness, was a deacon in the Catholic Church, and this is something he would have done, so I kind of came out for that reason too,” she said.

Robin Myers, another Peoria resident who attended, said, “I just feel bad that they’ve set for so long in a closet. They just need to be represented. That’s the only reason I’m here.”

Eymarde Lawler of Peoria reads a psalm from her Bible at the end of a burial service for the unclaimed remains of 13 people at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria. Like many of the people attending the burial, Lawler had no connection to any of the deceased but said she felt compelled to attend and to give the unscripted reading. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

Julie Hallar of Peoria, who attended with her father, John Truitt, said she felt a calling to attend the service when she heard about it on television news.

“We just buried my mother. They were married 62 years, and she’s buried here in this cemetery,” Hallar said.

Truitt, who recalled cutting grass with a hand mower in the sprawling historical cemetery in his youth while attending the old Spalding Institute, said the service brought to mind fellow soldiers who died during military battle.

“I can’t help but think of my military service and the ones we left in Korea,” he said. “I was in the infantry and there were many that will never come home that we couldn’t find.”

The crowd also included several OSF Saint Francis employees and some of Harwood’s friends and family. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Patrick Martin played “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes.

“Bagpipes were significant for putting people to the final rest in Scotland, so I think it’s a nice added touch here for such a good event,” Martin said.

Harwood said later that the remains of four people were picked up last week by family members who learned they were at the coroner’s office through local media coverage and social media posts. Those people were Dale Presley, Russell Sievert, Harold Lowery and Michele Hughes. The remains of two other people had no identifying paperwork with them and cannot legally be buried, Harwood said.

“If the families couldn’t afford to pay for the cremains, which I charge at my cost for the cremation, then I just gave them to them because I think that is the humane thing to do,”  Harwood said.

Helen Parshall of Peoria picked up the remains of her great-Uncle Dale Presley after a friend spotted his name on a list that Harwood provided to the media.

Patrick Martin of Peoria volunteered his time to play “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes at a burial service of the unclaimed remains of 13 people at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

“We were completely shocked,” Parshall said. “We have no clue how he ended up in the coroner’s office.”

Parshall said her mom, Merry Durrstein, knew her uncle had died and had been searching for his remains for years but had gotten conflicting answers from other family members.

“It makes me feel real good now that he’s finally back with family so maybe he’ll be at peace if he wasn’t, but it bothered me to see all the other people’s remains sitting on a table when I picked him up,” She said. “You have to wonder why were they there. Did the families not have the money to pay for it? Did the families not know where they were? Were there bad connections between the family?”

Stacy Campbell, community relations coordinator for OSF Healthcare Saint Francis Medical Center, said the burial of unclaimed remains will become an annual event on All Soul’s Day, which is a Christian commemoration on Nov. 2 of people who have died.

— Forgotten remains get final resting place in West Peoria —-