Two years ago, Justine Newman was given an unusual challenge as a new intern for the Chester County Coroner’s Office: Go through the records of the 65 unclaimed dead in the county’s possession and find the U.S. military veterans.
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| Justine Newman |
Newman, 22, was up for the task that her supervisor — a U.S. Marine veteran— presented her. She is studying to become a forensic pathologist. Her boyfriend is a U.S. Marine, too.
Her efforts resulted in what is described as a new standard operating procedure, which will be distributed to area coroner offices to assist them in identifying unclaimed veterans who may be eligible for military burials. Bucks County’s coroner has already expressed an interest in a copy, according to a cemetery spokesman.
Neither Pennsylvania nor New Jersey require funeral homes or coroner offices to identify potential military veterans among their unclaimed and abandoned dead.
A 2009 New Jersey law lets veteran groups claim cremated remains after one year, if no family comes forward, so they can be disposed of in a dignified manner. Over the last decade the remains of more than 600 abandoned New Jersey veterans have been claimed, and at least half were reunited with family, according to Mission of Honor, one of the nonprofit veteran organization seeking remains.
Pennsylvania has no such law.
Finding veterans among the unclaimed dead, some of whom had been deceased since 2011, was not easy for Newman. Most died at home and with no known or cooperative next of kin, so there was no simple way to confirm perhaps decades-old military service.
In 2017, she found nine unclaimed dead with military service, and seven were eligible for internment at the Washington Crossing National Cemetery with full military honors, which was done in a private ceremony. At the time Newman was not aware the cemetery holds a monthly service to remember veterans whose burials are otherwise unattended.
Earlier this year Newman asked to return to the coroner’s office to continue her unclaimed veteran project. This time, she was presented with the records for 35 unclaimed dead who died between 2016 and last year.
She found nine additional veterans eligible for military burials, who were remembered Thursday at the Upper Makefield national veterans’ cemetery, along with a Philadelphia veteran and four from Bucks County who were confirmed after this news organization identified them as possible veterans as part of its ongoing project, The Unclaimed.
“To have one-third of the cremated remains (in Chester County) have military service, it makes me proud to do the work,” said Newman, of Downingtown.
To determine if an unclaimed individual had a military record, Newman pursued multiple avenues.
She had to find their Social Security number, dates of birth and death, and then research veteran databases. She called nursing homes and hospitals in search of next-of-kin, friends or admission forms that might tell her if someone served in the military. She called family and friends of the unclaimed looking for information.
She contacted the Veterans Administration to see if the person was a patient at a local VA hospital or had received other veteran assistance. She contacted the National Archive in St. Louis, Missouri, to see if it had any records including discharge documents. When she confirmed eligibility, she coordinated with the military branches and the Washington Crossing cemetery to schedule the interments.
While Newman will be returning to Northeastern University in Boston where she is enrolled in a five-year pre-med and pre-law bachelor’s degree program, the effort she started will continue. Other counties may benefit from it.
Washington Crossing National Cemetery plans to distribute Chester County Coroner’s newly finalized SOP document to area coroner offices. In addition to Bucks County, the Delaware County Coroner has requested a meeting to review it, according to Jason Guenther, an administrative officer with the national cemetery.
Philadelphia’s medical examiner office regularly checks for veteran status among its unclaimed dead, Guenther said. There is an financial incentive for the effort, he added.
Funeral homes and coroner offices are eligible for partial reimbursement of costs related to processing unclaimed veterans for burial, including transportation costs, caskets and urns, which is something coroner offices may not be aware of, Guenther said.
While the work to identify and confirm military veterans was time-consuming, it was not difficult, Newman added.
“It’s just knowing where to fax the paperwork and how to be patient,” she added.
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