By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A burial service for individuals who have died in Lewis County over the past 14 years with no relatives to claim them is set for 2 p.m. on Wednesday at Claquato Cemetery west of Chehalis.
Urns will be moving from storage to a cemetery.
The public is welcome to attend.
The Lewis County Coroner’s Office underwent a renewed effort over the past several months to find family members of those whose cremated remains have long sat atop a file cabinet at their office.
Since publishing a list of names in late July, two of them have been reunited with relatives.
Coroner Warren McLeod said yesterday that 68-year-old Hiram Mahlon Coleman who died at his Pe Ell home in January of 2004 was recently returned to family.
The urn containing Harry Edwin Fields Jr., 58, of Chehalis, was released shortly after news stories appeared.
The fourteen urns will share a donated plot in a part of the cemetery known as the county section.
Claquato Cemetery is about two miles west of Chehalis at 142 Stearns Road.
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For background including the list, read “The unclaimed dead of Lewis County” from Sunday July 29, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
@CentraliaNeedsHelp — cold cold heart. How sad.
Instead of spending money on people we dont know. The money could go to the Centralia Cematary to install a Fence so Kids will quit pushing over George Washingtons grave stone and many others in this cematary.
This is only a guess, George, but probably a simple plaque. If nothing else, bureaucracy suggests they’d want to have a way of marking it as a grave and who’s in it, in case anything comes up in future.
They finally get their final resting spot, but will there be any sort of marker with their name on it?