'Life is worth celebrating': Unclaimed remains of 173 people laid to rest in Marion County

The sun shone down on the solemn volunteers who carried cloth bags in colors of dark red, blue and green. In their hands, they held the cremated remains of 173 people who died in Marion County but were never claimed.

Names of the decedents, who died from 2006 to 2019, were read aloud as their remains were placed into an ossuary Monday morning. After years of being alone in death, they were honored and have now reached their final disposition.

“This community made this happen,” said Linda Znachko, founder of He Knows Your Name ministry. “I don't stand here alone. This was everyone validating that this is important, and life is worth celebrating."

Znachko and Marion County Chief Deputy Coroner Alfie McGinty worked for more than a year to lay to rest the county’s unclaimed dead. Their efforts culminated in a celebration of life, procession and burial event at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens.

"I feel a sense of relief and a sense of comfort to know that the decedents we had in our possession are now in their final resting place in this beautiful ossuary,” McGinty said. “We have worked so hard to get to this day and now it's finally here with the beautiful sun and all of the people who came out to help and give honor.”

Earlier this month, Znachko and McGinty held a press conference and released the names of the decedents to the media to give friends or family a final chance to claim the remains. The loved ones of two decedents on the list came forward.

More than 50 volunteers assisted in taking the cremains out of wicker caskets. They carried them down a sidewalk where they were placed into the white, marble ossuary that sits in the front of the cemetery.

‘Happy that somebody stepped up’

Dale Greeson didn’t like Larry Lineback very much when they first met as co-workers at an Indianapolis swimming pool cover company. Yet almost seven years after Lineback’s death Greeson was there for him. Lineback died in October 2015 and was one of Marion County’s unclaimed adults at the coroner’s office.

"He was a good guy. He was carefree,” Greeson said at the burial event Monday. “He was just a person who needed help. I mean everyone needs help. I tried to hang in there for him and I'm sad that he died. He ended up being one of my better friends that I've ever had.”

Lineback struggled with and died because of alcoholism, Greeson said.

After the death of his friend in 2015, Greeson called the coroner’s office and tried to claim the body but was told a family member had already come forward.

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"I didn't think no one else was going to do it,” Greeson said. “I'm religious in my own way and I felt like someone told me to do it. I wanted to do it right then. I wanted to have the burial right then."

Greeson thinks the family member who initially claimed Lineback’s body must have not had the funds to move forward with their plans.

“I'm happy that somebody stepped up and did this,” Greeson said. “I don't have the money to be able to do this and honor him on my own anymore. I'm all for this.”

Finding a solutionto Indianapolis' unclaimed dead

In addition to honoring the decedents, Monday's events were purposed to bring attention to the issue of unclaimed remains. The coroner’s office had previously made every attempt possible to find the relatives of those who died by using social media, a national database and placing a notice in The Indianapolis Star.

"We have attempted to locate the families of those decedents,” McGinty said when announcing plans for the burial and celebration of life. “In some cases, there are no family members that are surviving the decedent. In other cases, families have had difficulty in finding resources to take care of those decedents, their loved ones." 

Grief and other factors may also play a part in the remains of deceased going unclaimed, McGinty said. 

The coroner’s office will hold onto a body for at least 30 days, to give time for loved ones to come forward, before moving ahead with cremation. While preparing for Monday’s events, staff at the coroner’s office located the unclaimed remains of four additional individuals, who were not included on the original list of decedents.

The coroner's office plans to identify funding on an annual basis to honor the lives of unclaimed decedents and lay them to rest at the Oaklawn Memorial Gardens’ ossuary moving forward.

Znachko hopes the event will be an example for funeral homes, hospitals and other coroner’s offices across the country to show how the unclaimed dead can be laid to rest with dignity. Another goal is to let the public know there are affordable options for burying loved ones, she said. 

She encouraged families to have tough conversations about plans for the final disposition of their loved ones.

“I know talking about death is hard,” Znachko said. “I know it's painful, but it also is healing if you trust it. Invite God into it and let it become something really beautiful in your family that you share and do together."

Monday’s burial event ended with the release of doves.

"I'm grateful that you have come to say, ‘I'm going to give value to all these lives today,” Znachko said. “It is shifting the atmosphere of value in our culture from the disregard for life to the regard for life."

Below are the names and dates of deaths for the decedents whose remains had been unclaimed from the Marion County Coroner's Office from 2006 to 2019.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Unclaimed remains of 173 people laid to rest in Marion County