Kane County Coroner seeks the public’s assistance in identifying next of kin for unclaimed remains

KANE COUNTY — Kane County Coroner Rob Russell is attempting to spread the word regarding unclaimed remains that have been kept in storage at the coroner’s office.

Russell is hopeful that the next of kin of the 40 unclaimed cremated remains currently being held in storage, will come forward to claim family member cremains before they are laid to rest in a non-denominational service that will take place at 10 a.m. on May 27 at the North Cemetery (1200 N. 5th Avenue) in St. Charles.

Several unclaimed remains have been added to the St. Charles Township Cemetery North Mausoleum since 2013 when Russell first facilitated the entombment of 41 unclaimed remains being kept in storage at that time.

Soon after highlighting the unclaimed remains, St. Charles Township Supervisor John Arthur Anderson presented the solution of utilizing an empty, unused tomb that had already been purchased by the village, to bury those that have remained unclaimed by their next of kin.

Originally, 47 remains were discovered in the coroner’s office storage unit, according to Russell, however, six of those cremains were able to be reunited with their respective families.

The Wolf family was just one of many families that have made news headlines, when they discovered back in 2013, that the unclaimed remains of one particular individual were those of their firstborn infant daughter Shawna Lea, who was only 2 months old when she died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1987 in the Wolf family’s Carpentersville home.

Shawna Lea’s father, Jerry, told media outlets that upon his daughter’s passing, Shawna Lea’s remains were cremated and eventually ended up in a storage shed that had been sold at auction due to Jerry not being in the best financial situation at that time.

26 years later, Jerry and his wife Denise Wolf were living in Florida, still unaware of the location of their daughter’s cremains. Fortunately, Jerry’s mother, who was still living in Carpentersville, saw Shawna Lea’s name on one of the coroner’s lists of unclaimed remains and immediately contacted Jerry.

Since that time, Russell has performed four additional entombments, with this year being the fifth memorial held by the coroner’s office.

Russell explained that unclaimed remains stored at the coroner’s office have even been shipped halfway around the world to Australia, where a family member there recognized the name of a cousin on one of Russell’s lists of unclaimed remains.

“With the state hurting financially, we have to find alternatives to take care of those who are indigent. Too many times, family members wind up walking away from the responsibility for burial,” said Russell. “With this township partnership, some of that cost has been mitigated. I would like all townships that have cemeteries to partner with me in the future.”

Russell is thankful to St. Charles Township Supervisor Ron Johnson and the St. Charles Township Cemetery Board for their continuance in partnering with his office.

“Staff does the best job possible to contact next of kin, but some people simply refuse to claim their family members. We cannot force them. Sometimes, the deceased have no surviving family. I believe it is our responsibility to provide a dignified final resting place for these unclaimed individuals,” said Russell.

Anyone with any information on the 40 remains currently stored at the coroner’s office is encouraged to call the office at 630-232-3535.

The names of the 40 individuals currently scheduled to be entombed at the May 27 memorial service are as follows:

Susan Elizabeth Visser, died Aug. 20, 2016; David Media Ceja Castellanos, died May 6, 2019; Duane Gene Ackmann, died July 8, 2019; Robert Randal Labisoniere, died Aug. 26, 2019; Alfred G. Brauch, died Sept. 20, 2019; Lois Johnson, died Dec. 21, 2019; Ricardo O. Bruce, died Dec. 25, 2019; Joseph Peter Rizzo, died Dec. 25, 2019; Gary Michael Kursaitis, died Jan. 30, 2020; Zoraida Laureano, died Feb. 10, 2020; Guy Mario Way, died March 7, 2020; Joe Duane Craig, died March 29, 2020; Emmett L. Hill, died April 2, 2020; Lorrie A. Moore, died April 17, 2020; Gordon Thompson, died May 9, 2020; Gregory Rossi, died June 9, 2020; Charlie Casillas, died July 10, 2020; Richard Tamme, died July 15, 2020; Phil Edwin Dierschow, died July 30, 2020; Eulalio Nieves, died Aug. 1, 2020; Avadhani Mallela, died Aug. 13, 2020; Gerald Guss, died Dec. 2, 2020; John Charles Paulauski III, died Dec. 11, 2020; James J. Bell, died Dec. 30, 2020; and Margaret Rust, died Dec. 31, 2020.