O merciful God,

take pity on those souls

who have no particular friends and intercessors

to recommend them to Thee, who,

either through the negligence of those who are alive,

or through length of time are forgotten

by their friends and by all.

–A Prayer For The Forgotten Dead

  Michael Weinstein was described by his stepson this way, “He was a good guy; he was just crushed by society.”  Mr. Weinstein was suddenly widowed in the 70s. His children were a 7 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. He remarried a woman with a young son, but his new wife began to suffer mental illness and became abusive to the family. Mr. Weinstein’s daughter ran away, his son left and even changed his last name so his father and stepmother couldn’t find him. The stepson went to live with his father.

  Mr. Weinstein was a typographer, whose career became extinct. He went to driving cars for a service, but lost his vision. He died in a nursing home, where his wife was a patient, but because of mental deterioration of both husband and wife, he was sent to the New York Medical Examiner’s Office morgue as unclaimed. His body was “loaned” to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, for dissection, as abandoned decedents at the Medical Examiner’s Office can be.

  Michael, Wynston, his son, learned from a New York Times reporter that his father’s remains were still at the medical school and would have been sent to Hart’s Island, “Potters Field” and assigned a number in a trench burial.

  The New York Times has written a thorough and revealing report on those who die in metropolitan New York abandoned, though many have families and some have funds. The report reveals how little research is done to locate survivors.

  The Medical Examiner’s office takes custody of unclaimed remains. Under a 162 year old law, medical schools and mortuary colleges are offered these unclaimed dead. In the last decade, 4,000 decedents were offered to the medical or mortuary schools; 1,877 were accepted. After their use, the remains are ferried out to Hart’s Island for mass burial. The process is done without next of kin consent, and the complaint has been that little was done to locate surviving family. The Einstein College depended on the medical examiner’s office to locate family members.

  Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill in August 2016 banning the use of unclaimed dead for medical or mortuary school use without family’s consent. Some of the unclaimed do have next of kin who are unable to pay for cremation or burial.

  Marie Scavelli, 87, died in 2013. Her previously deceased husband is buried in Calverton National Cemetery with a space for her.  Her son, Anthony, served as an investigator for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Her dementia and Anthony’s own struggles with mental illness cause an estrangement in their relationship. She was scheduled for burial in Hart Island’s Potter’s Field. She was discovered in time and her son arranged for burial with her husband.

  In 2014 the medical examiners morgue had made more than several mistakes; lawsuits and unfavorable news reports followed. They could not find some decedents and some cover-ups were discovered.

  The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has reported “a more robust protocol for identifying potential relatives.”

  The other scandal that came out of the investigation was the fiduciary incompetence or malfeasance of those requesting, or being assigned, fiduciaries to handle their affairs.

  Leola Dickerson of Pleasantville, NJ had a home with family memorabilia all over it. She fell and several days passed before she was found in a barely conscious state. She was put in a nursing home in Queens by her brother. She was appointed a guardian, by the court, to manage her affairs. Her home was worth $88,200 and she received social security. Family members tried to contact her, but had no idea of her plight. Four attorneys appointed never submitted guardian papers. Her house went into foreclosure for attorney’s fees and five months after her death, her body went to Potter’s Field.

  Constance Mirabelli had a rent controlled apartment, but her landlord thought that she should be put under guardianship. “Four years, two guardians and two nursing homes later,” as the New York Times reported, she died at 91. She had her burial spot at St. John’s Cemetery in Queens and a court protected $2,000 burial fund. Despite that, she was buried in Trench 307 with 137 others.

  Doris McCrea did everything right not to end up in Potter’s Field. A retired head of records retention for Continental Grains, she purchased a prepaid burial plan, had $5,400 in personal savings at her nursing home. She outlived her family and four months later was buried with 148 others in a trench burial. No one properly checked her records. The administrator of Queens Boulevard Extended Care Facility, where she died, called it “very unfortunate.” No one would have known if a New York Times reporter hadn’t contacted the facility. Attempts will be made to fulfill her final plans.

  Hart Island, in the Long Island Sound, was purchased by the City of New York in 1868. The 101 acre island held a prison for Confederate soldiers, a lunatic asylum, a tuberculosis hospital and a boy’s reformatory.  Prison inmates complete the burial tasks on the island. The island received the name of Potter’s Field (as did other city’s indigent burial sites) from the story of Judas as written in the Bible (Matthew 27:5-7). When Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver (for handing over Jesus), the silver was used to buy a clay ridden plot of land. The property was unfit for farming so it was used to bury strangers.

  The National Funeral Directors Association asked the Policy Board members representing every state and the District of Columbia what their indigent burial policies are. The response has been across the board from no funds to some fairly generous allowances. NFDA General Counsel Scott Gilligan is compiling a report card of states guidelines on indigent burials.

  The demand on the states has increased as budgetary woes have hit the bottom strata of our economy. State budgets have cut safety nets as their revenues have been reduced.

  This is a problem that will not lessen over time. Oversight to these programs is mandatory as public funds must be spent wisely. Due diligence at the government level will fulfill the fiduciary obligation but also protect the dignity of those who die indigent. 

  “It is vital that we take every possible step to respect and follow the wishes of the deceased and their family members regarding the disposal of their loved ones remain.”