Remains of 79 indigent Lake County residents to be buried at ceremony Monday

The cremated and unclaimed remains of 79 indigent Lake County residents will be buried at Ascension Cemetery in Libertyville Monday with a ceremony for the first time.

A procession accompanied by Lake County sheriff's deputies will take the remains from the Lake County Coroner's Office in Waukegan to the cemetery at 12:15 a.m. with burial beginning at 1 p.m. The event is open to the public.

“It's important to us to provide these people, who were someone's sons or daughters, mothers or fathers, a final resting place that is dignified and respectful,” Chief Deputy Lake County Coroner Steve Newton said.

Newton said Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago donated gravesites at Ascension where these and future indigent burials will take place.

Starting in 2016, the coroner's office began storing the cremated remains of residents whose bodies either went unclaimed by their families or had no next of kin.

Before then, the county's procedure was for the Public Administrator's Office to seek out a local funeral home to bury the remains.

Newton said the system was changed so better records of the indigent and unclaimed could be kept.

Sixty-two of the 79 sets of remains became the responsibility of the coroner's office when the person's next of kin wasn't found after a thorough search or when the family declined to take possession.

The other 17 cremated human remains were discovered by members of the public and turned over to the coroner's office in the last seven years.

“From time-to-time, people come across urns containing cremated remains,” Newton said. “One was found at a spot overlooking a lake and others are just out in the community.”

One example was when the new owner of a Round Lake Beach home found three urns containing human remains. While officials were able to identify the three people, who were related to each other, they determined the three had no living relatives.

The ceremony will be based on the system developed by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, which includes yearly ceremonies at the Chicago Temple Building in the Loop.

Newton said whether future burials happen on an annual or biannual basis will depend on the numbers of indigent and unclaimed residents.