LANCASTER, S.C. — A special ceremony was held on Wednesday to honor the lives of 12 people who died years ago but their bodies were never claimed.
Lancaster County Coroner Karla Deese says a lot of people have loved ones who die unexpectedly and they may not be able to pay for a funeral or want to pay for one.
That’s what happened to the 12 people who were honored on Wednesday. Deese says their bodies remained at her office for years until the city donated a cemetery plot to bury them in 2020.
The grave had no headstone until now.
A donation from Sun City’s Republican Club paid for the headstone with the names of all 12 people.
Clare McConaughay and a handful of other people attended the service.
“(It) just made us so sad that these people did not have a final resting place where their names could be remembered forever,” McConaughay said.
Deese says in the four years it took to complete this burial, 21 other bodies have gone unclaimed.
“We are not in a time that people are prepared,” Deese said. “If you take it back 40, 50 years, everybody was prepared to pay for their funeral or to pay for their family member’s funeral. It’s not a priority anymore.”
But Deese says as long as she’s coroner, she’ll work to give these people a proper burial.
“You deserve to have a final resting place, not just sitting on a shelf for years and years and years,” she said.
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