[dropcap size=big]N[/dropcap]o one had claimed their remains even though they died up to three years ago. No family. No friends. They numbered 1,457: L.A. County’s “unclaimed decedents.”
So, on this damp Wednesday morning, under the strong smell of pine and sycamore trees and wet cut lawn grass, L.A. County buried these misbegotten individuals at its crematory-cemetery in Boyle Heights, given the deceased, at least, an interfaith ceremony to send them to the afterlife.
Days before, workers had dug a single plot on the sloping lawn, colloquially dubbed “pauper’s field,” although the phrase's negative connotations have made it unpopular. The grave site was marked by a year, “2015” — when the earliest in this lot were cremated — and a blue tarp. The freshly turned earth was carefully cleared and leveled.
L.A. County holds the cremated remains of individuals for up to three years before a common burial, to allow for any family members or loved ones to claim a person's remains, said Estella Inouye, manager of decedent affairs at the Department of Health Services. “I get unclaimed, abandoned, and indigent,” Inouye said.