Sheriff Wants to Reform Indigent Burials

Thelma Sardin |

Last week, more than a year after the discovery of the horrific scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart revealed what he has learned are common practices in the cemetery industry practices he said are not only disturbing, but which also threaten to impede criminal investigation processes by law enforcement agencies, according to a recent press release.

On Feb. 1, Dart visited Homewood Memorial Gardens (HMG) in south suburban Homewood. HMG has had a contract with the county since 1980 to bury unidentified and poor individuals. The indigent burials are funded by taxpayer dollars. According to the release, as many as 26 infants were buried together earlier this month, in the same wooden box as assorted items identified only as mixed tissues.

Dart asked the Cook County Commissioners to conduct a hearing on the matter before signing a 2011 contract for indigent burials. HMG served as the only bidder for the 2009-10 contract. That 2-year deal called for the cemetery to be compensated $167,300 to handle all indigent burials - with the county billed per casket. During the past 30 years, the county has averaged 250 indigent burials a year; however it dropped to 137 last year.

The indigent interment process begins when the Homewood staff picks up the bodies in a rented U-Haul truck and then unloads the bodies for burial in a designated corner of the cemetery. A county representative should be on site during the burials and the current contract says bodies are only to be buried side-by-side. When Dart witnessed the indigent burial process on Feb. 1, he learned that is not being followed.

Dart called for a statewide reform in handling the burials of unidentified and indigent persons by supporting a bill sponsored by State Rep. William Cunningham (D-Chicago). Recently introduced, HB1457 requires all coroners or medical examiners to obtain a DNA sample for those unidentified at the time of burial, then affixing a metal identification tag to the body. The bill requests for a $1 fee to be added for copies of death certificates to cover any acquired expenses.

According to Steve Patterson, Director of Communications and Community Affairs for the Cook County Sheriff, the legislation sponsored by State Rep. Cunningham would require a grid system of exact locations of indigent burials, limit the number of caskets stacked over each other and limit the number of bodies in one casket. With multiple infants in one casket, along with medical waste and assorted bones and limbs, it makes it even more impossible to exhume a baby if needed.

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