Los Angeles County buries over 1,700 unclaimed dead in the mass grave

Local officials held an online ceremony Wednesday to bury 1,780 unclaimed dead in a mass grave of people who died in Los Angeles County in 2018 after their remains were never claimed, the Associated Press reported.

Burying the unclaimed dead has been a tradition for the county of Los Angeles since 1896. However, the earliest marker for the use of mass graves was dated 1962, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

Albery Gaskin has been the caretaker of the county cemetery for the past 45 years and estimated in 2020 that 6,000 people’s ashes will be stored in a room whose relatives will ever claim the remains, Our weekly magazine reported.

The ceremony for the remains is often held at “Potter’s field”, in honor of both Jane and John Does, who were never identified, and those whose remains were never claimed, Our weekly magazine reported.

According to Our Weekly, many of the remains were from people who died on the streets of Los Angeles, or who died in nursing homes and were forgotten.

“In many cases, they were identified, but there is no family, or the family is too poor to take the remains. At the end of the day, the county is the ultimate safety net,” said former county chief Don Knabe after a 2016 service, LAisten reported. .

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Los Angeles National Cemetery, California — Local officials held an online ceremony Wednesday to bury 1,780 unharmed dead in a mass grave of people who died in Los Angeles County in 2018. Above is a girl among military gravestones at Los Angeles National Cemetery on Memorial Day, in Los Angeles, California. , May 31, 2021.
Chris Delmas / AFP / Getty Images

The ceremony, with prayers in several languages, was held Wednesday at a mass grave containing the ashes of the dead at the Los Angeles County Crematory and Cemetery. Like last year, the event was streamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

County Supervisor Janice Hahn noted that the tradition of burying the unclaimed dead with dignity dates back to 1896.

“We do not know the life stories of the people we bury today, but we do know that many of them were homeless, some were children, some were immigrants, almost all were poor, and for one reason or another they had no loved ones. who could claim them when they passed, “Hahn said.

The county is trying to find relatives and waits three years from the year of death before burying the ashes to give family members time to come forward. Uncollected ashes from that year are then placed in a single grave with a marker.

“We know they were loved by God. We know their lives meant something,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, Director of the Department of Health Services.