- Lewis County Sirens.com - https://lewiscountysirens.com -

Public invited to join coroner’s staff for burial of unclaimed persons

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.

2012.0727.unclaimedremains.small_2 [1]

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 [2] 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 [3]