No one came to say goodbye when Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby buried a stillborn infant in a pauper’s grave at Fairview Cemetery last month.

Only a minister who provided prayer and the people who prepare the grave sites were present.

“It breaks your heart, but if we’re as assured of going to heaven as that little baby is, then the world would be peaceful,” Kirby said.

While not a daily occurrence, it is not uncommon for some in the county to pass away without any means to pay for final expenses – or in the case of the infant, without any family members willing to step forward to claim their remains. Those are the unclaimed. Others die unidentified as John and Jane Does. It is the responsibility of the coroner’s office to take physical control of the county’s dead until they are either claimed by a family member or friend or left unclaimed for the coroner’s office to oversee. 

Last year, the coroner’s office provided burials for the remains of 51 people. So far this year, Kirby has overseen 32 such burials – of those, three are considered unclaimed bodies in that no one stepped forward to claim them. There were also three unclaimed bodies last year. None of the burials this year or in 2015 was a John or Jane Doe. Kirby’s office, through his funeral home, J.C. Kirby & Son, provides county-assisted burials to most of the dead buried here in pauper’s graves, but other funeral homes also provide that service.

Typically, Kirby waits about two weeks before burying the unclaimed, indigent or unknown. It would be cheaper for him to cremate those remains, but without a family member’s consent, state law does not allow him to do that.

“Over the years we’ve had several Jane (and John) Doe cases,” Kirby said. “We would do them the same as any other indigent cases.”

All remains buried through county-assisted burials receive a simple wooden casket and a graveside burial service. If Kirby is able to locate a family member who gives the go-ahead for cremation, the bodies are cremated. For county-assisted burials, Kirby receives $475 from the Bowling Green-Warren County Welfare Board. He pays the city $100 to dig the grave. He estimates that if his funeral home provided regular services for all of those burials, he provides about $50,000-$60,000 in services annually.

With unidentified bodies, Kirby calls in a forensic anthropologist or dentist to get as much information as possible for possible identification.

“We try to exhaust everything we can before we do that burial,” Kirby said. “Some years there will be two or three, and some not any at all. We haven’t had any at all the last couple of years.”

Deaths in which Kirby identifies the deceased, but the person had no money for final expenses or no one came forward to pay for them, are becoming more common.

“At one time, you only had four or five a year,” he said. “Years ago, communities would come together to help families. You just don’t see that a lot any more. You will see (GoFundMe.com) pages. A lot of people live on an income where it’s hard for them to come up with money to pay for those services.”

Some cases in which Kirby finds family members, the family may have been estranged from the dead person for many years and wants nothing to do with paying for a funeral service. Others may have outlived all of their relatives. In deaths in which a person died without funds but had an estate, the county will file a claim against the estate to recoup the $475 county-assisted burial cost.

“It’s sad that somebody has lived a life that nobody cares or we can’t find someone,” Kirby said. “It’s somebody’s son or daughter. They belong to somebody somewhere. But this is a big old world now and people are so mobile. There are people from all over the world coming to our community now. 

“You have people who move here who just like this area and don’t have any contact with the family. Maybe they are living off of their Social Security check. Then it’s up to the county to take care of through the Warren County welfare board.” 

In Allen County, Darren Davis has been coroner for six years. He hasn’t buried any unidentified people in that time. The last unclaimed body was that of a person who had been living in a local nursing home. That person died and was buried two years ago. A minister donated his time for the service, and two people from the nursing home attended, Davis’ mother-in-law, Diana Goad, said. Goad owns Goad Funeral Home, where Davis and his wife, Gwen, work.

Sometimes strangers offer assistance for pauper burials in Scottsville. That was the case in the homicide death of Stuart Hearell, who was killed late last year and was cremated in January. Hearell was a ward of the state, living in a personal care home in Allen County. He walked away from the home, was killed and found in a shallow grave Dec. 25.

Goad Funeral Home provided Hearell’s service that more than 50 people attended Jan. 8. Hearell’s remains were cremated and sent to Livingston County, where the cremains were buried next to the bodies of Hearell’s mother and father. The money that a stranger donated to help assist with the funeral costs was given to a preacher who assisted with the service.

“It’s just a service to your community,” Davis said of pauper burials. “We don’t have too many or we couldn’t afford it. What else are you going to do when a medical facility calls and says we have a body to pick up.”

— Follow Assistant City Editor Deborah Highland on Twitter @BGDNCrimebeat or visit bgdailynews.com.