ADA COUNTY, Idaho — A crowd came together on Thursday at Terrace Lawn Memorial Gardens to celebrate the lives of those past. The dynamic, though, was unique: those in attendance at the memorial never really knew the people being celebrated.
“Everyone is important and each of us leave something behind when we depart from this life,” Senior Deputy Investigator for the Ada County Coroner’s Office, Teresa Young said.
Words like Young’s helped inspire Ada County Coroner Dottie Owens to do something for those who seem to be forgotten. Owens said every year, there is a list of people who come through the office that have no next of kin, or investigators are unable to find next of kin. There are also cases when a person is abandoned by family for one reason or another.
“I'm pretty passionate about the memorial that we do every year. When I first took office almost eight years ago, we discovered that we had closets full of these cremains,” Owens said.
Storing unclaimed remains is a practicality of the coroner profession, but Owens believed those remains belonged in a more respectable environment.
“I had some cremains in our office from 1996 forward," Owens said. "So, any time a county and indigent - what we call an indigent case - is cremated those, cremains come back to the office and then we would retain custody and they were literally storing them everywhere. We could just find empty space indoors."
The Ada County Coroner’s Office partnered with Cloverdale Funeral Home to create a memorial and event to pay tribute. Cloverdale donated a crypt to store unclaimed remains in a dignified manner.
“Very beautiful. Cloverdale actually designed it and we are so grateful that they did that. They did that at no cost to county. It was all donated," Owens said. "So, that's why we continue to do this. We would not be able to do this had Cloverdale not done this for us."
Members of the public and county staffers joined in on the special memorial service, but this does not mark the end of the road for unclaimed remains. The effort to connect with families continues for Owens and her staff.
“With these cases. There's a lot of heart and soul that goes into finding these individuals families. Once we get through the cremation process, we just don't stop looking. We know we've got investigators," Owens said. "If they've got down time, if I've got down time, my chief will pull out a case and start going through it and looking for, you know, 'did we miss something?' Is there some kind of relation somewhere that we just haven't identified?'"
Owens said there is no state statute on how long they need to maintain remains, but they have their own policy - always keep looking.
“We do that for families, because we are with technology. Every case is entered into a system, so that anyone seeking for a family member can see that we have had that as a case and that we would have those cremains,” Owens said. “It's wonderful to know that community and our staff and clearly everyone that's been involved in this just there's still that need to find placement.”
The Ada County Coroner’s Office keeps a list of unclaimed remains update on their website. Click here for more information and the list from over the years.
Join 'The 208' conversation:
- Text us at (208) 321-5614
- E-mail us at the208@ktvb.com
- Join our The 208 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the208KTVB/
- Follow us on Twitter: @the208KTVB or tweet #the208 and #SoIdaho
- Follow us on Instagram: @the208KTVB
- Bookmark our landing page: /the-208
- Still reading this list? We're on YouTube, too: