Ashes of Greene County's unclaimed dead to be scattered annually

Greene County Medical Examiner Tom Van De Berg has to share his office but he said he doesn't mind.

"They're quiet," Van De Berg said, talking about the ashes of around 20 deceased people he keeps in a wooden cabinet.

It's up to his office to make arrangements for those who die in Greene County and nobody is able or willing to take responsibility for the body.

On Tuesday, Greene County Commissioners unanimously approved an updated policy for handling indigent remains. Van De Berg said it will help the county keep up with rising cremation prices and better track what happens to the deceased.

Since 2015, the county has kept remains in the medical examiner's office. But before the office was was built, unclaimed ashes were kept at funeral homes or crematories around the city, Van De Berg said.

Van De Berg said there was no way of knowing how many unclaimed ashes are tucked away in Springfield-area funeral homes or crematoriums.

“We have worked with, at one time or another, all of the funeral homes in town,” Van De Berg said.

The Commission's vote also removed a requirement for people to pay back funeral homes for cremation services if they want to claim indigent remains.

Companies can charge families anywhere between $700 to $1500 for a basic cremation, Van De Berg said.

Under the new policy, each cremation will cost the county $400. Some are reimbursed by The Community Foundation of the Ozarks through a special fund for indigent burials and funerals.

"(Crematories) are not making any money off of it but it should cover basic costs to the facility," Van De Berg said.

Van De Berg said the county tries to get cremated remains back to families whenever they can. However, he said the policy is not meant to pay the cost of cremations for people who can afford it.

"It's meant for true indigent people who have nothing or no one to cover the cost," Van De Berg said.

Van De Berg said his office will probably ask people picking up indigent remains to pay $400 to cover the county's cost. If the county was reimbursed, the money would go to the organization that provided the compensation.

The News-Leader previously reported at one point Springfield Mortuary Service, a company that contracts with the county, had the unclaimed ashes of around 200 individuals.

According to Tina Phillips with the county budget office, 18 indigent people were cremated in 2015.

All remains will be kept in Van De Berg's office for at least a year, he said. If no one claims them, the ashes will be scattered in a county cemetery on the first Thursday of May.

The county's policy requires notice to be published in a local newspaper 30 days prior to the scatter date.

Alms House Cemetery

A quiet cemetery in northwest Springfield houses over a hundred unmarked graves. For at least a century, people have buried the poor and the homeless at the Greene County Alms House Cemetery.

It's near the site of the former county poorhouse, where people sent the elderly, disabled and mentally ill who had no one to care for them. Many who died in the poorhouse were buried at the cemetery.

It also serves as the modern resting place for unclaimed remains.

Van De Berg said ashes are scattered in the center of the cemetery, on an oval-shaped patch of grass surrounded by a ring of trees.

"We rake (the ashes) in a little bit. As soon as it rains they soak into the ground," Van De Berg said.

He said he will be looking into organizing a small ceremony for the first scatter date planned for next May.