1,500 unclaimed remains buried in annual ceremony

BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For more than 100 years, Los Angeles County has been burying unclaimed victims at the Los Angeles County Crematory and Cemetery, and each year the number of those who come to honor them grows.

A ceremony was held Wednesday in Boyle Heights for almost 1,500 people who died in 2011. The county waits three years after a person's death to give family and friends a chance to claim loved ones.

"You're not really getting anything back. There's nothing specifically that's returned to you, but we're still coming together to say these lives matter," said Maggie Matthews, a mourner who attended the Boyle Heights ceremony.

Some died violently, while others simply died from old age. Some of the people attending the burial see those last moments of life.

"I often wonder where they go and who's there at their last moments. To have nobody claim them is so sad," said Rebecca Rose, a trauma nurse.

Each person is identified and the county keeps a record so loves ones years later can come and pay their respects.

"Sometimes, maybe five years, somebody will come back and we can still identify and let them come out here in memory," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. "You'll see some individual markers and that's because they find out that a family member was in there..."

But no matter what happens in the future, on the day the remains are finally laid to rest those who attended the ceremony will remember them and honor them with prayer, a kind thought, or maybe just a flower.