A record number of people died in King County last year without family to bury them

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office Wednesday honored hundreds of people who died in 2022 whose families could not be located or could not afford a burial service. Investigators with the office say the number of indigent remains is increasing year after year.

Light rain fell on Renton’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Wednesday, a lush area that sits on top of a hill with tall evergreens overlooking downtown and Lake Washington.

The sound of bagpipes rang through the air as Dirk Halliwill from Seattle Firefighters Pipes and Drums played “Amazing Grace” to a solemn crowd.

Faith leaders read aloud the names of 302 people who died in King County last year who either could not pay for a burial service or whose family could not be located by the county.

“This might very well be the last time that these people's names are said out loud,” said James Sosik Jr., lead medical death investigator for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. “I was grateful for everybody to be here, to listen to those names because this could be the very last time anybody's thinking of these people.”

About 40 people attended the public ceremony, bowing their heads in silence as the names were read.

Nawiishtunmi Nightgun, chief traditional officer for Chief Seattle Club in Seattle, was one of the people who read the names.

“They have no connection to their family, no connection to their land, so it's important for us to come to these events so we're able to send them off in a good way to their journey,” Nightgun said.

Chief Seattle Club also honors Indigenous people every year who die while experiencing homelessness in Seattle.

“Sometimes it's really hard when people pass away because they just never know what they did on this land that caused impact,” Nightgun said, “and they need to hear that.”

The Medical Examiner’s Office used to hold the indigent remains ceremony every few years with about 80 names. But that number keeps going up every year, Sosik Jr. said.

“Eighteen months ago, maybe last August, we buried 240 people and I thought that would have been the highest ever and it just keeps increasing,” he said.

2022 set a new record with 302 people, including seven infants. The number of small children, Sosik Jr. said, has also grown.

“That's always a shocker to us,” he said. “We're all human at the office, we’re used to dealing with this sort of thing but the babies… what can I say, you know? Those are the ones that hit the hardest.”

Peoples’ remains are buried together in one area of Mt. Olivet, with grave markers for each year. Even if a person may have died alone, Sosik Jr. said, they have a home now.

“So it's like a bonded community, if you will, of decedents who all need a place to stay rather than be individualized,” he said.

King County keeps a list of people online who have died in the program in case family hopes to identify a loved one in the future.