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LAGGING INDICATORS: 67 BODIES IN DETROIT MORGUE REMAIN UNCLAIMED
CNN - Inside the Wayne County morgue in midtown Detroit, 67 bodies are piled up, unclaimed, in the freezing temperatures. Neither the families nor the county can afford to bury the corpses. So they stack up inside the freezer. Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the morgue, said he has never seen anything like it during his 13 years on the job. "Some people don't come forward even though they know the people are here," said the former Detroit cop. "They don't have the money."
Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell's aunt, Nancy Graham -- and say their goodbyes.
The couple, already financially strained, don't have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don't have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell's grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card -- at 21% interest.
So the Vickers had to leave their aunt behind. Body number 67.
The reason for the pile-up is twofold: One, unemployment in the area is approaching 28%, and many people, like the Vickers, can't afford last rites; two, the county's $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.
Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell's aunt, Nancy Graham -- and say their goodbyes.
The couple, already financially strained, don't have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don't have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell's grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card -- at 21% interest.
So the Vickers had to leave their aunt behind. Body number 67.
The reason for the pile-up is twofold: One, unemployment in the area is approaching 28%, and many people, like the Vickers, can't afford last rites; two, the county's $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.
1 Comments:
Maybe the credit card industry , who seem to have their interest rates pegged to Detroit's unemployment rate, have the wherewithal to pick up the tab for one or two complimentary cremations?
After all, many of the lingering dead were long-time credit card users. Not saying that's what killed them, just noticing that they're the perfect niche demographic for a tasteful last "rewards" program.
A tip of the industry hat to those departed plastic users who were extorted nearly every waking minute of their entire lives,and never breathed a word about it to someone like David Letterman who could have done something about it on T.V.
- John A. Joslin , Detroit
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