Three more unclaimed dead to get final resting places

Jo Ciavaglia
Updated ·2 min read

A World War II veteran, his wife and a 73-year-old Montgomery County man are the latest unclaimed dead who will be buried after their remains sat in county storage for years.

Montgomery County First Deputy Coroner Alexander Balacki confirmed the cremated remains of Leroy and Lucille Bortner will be interred at the Washington Crossing National Veterans Cemetery on Sept. 24. The couple died two months apart in 1986 in Miami, Florida, according to their cremation certificates.

In this 2019 photo, the remains of Lucille and LeRoy Bortner remain in the Priority Mail box that they were dropped off in. The shelf was located in the storage room of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.
In this 2019 photo, the remains of Lucille and LeRoy Bortner remain in the Priority Mail box that they were dropped off in. The shelf was located in the storage room of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.
This is a copy of the military discharge for LeRoy Bortner. Bortner and his wife, Lucille's ashes were dropped off at the Montgomery County Coroner's office by a relative who didn't know what to do with them.
This is a copy of the military discharge for LeRoy Bortner. Bortner and his wife, Lucille's ashes were dropped off at the Montgomery County Coroner's office by a relative who didn't know what to do with them.

The day after the Bortners are buried, the cremated remains of Roscoe Fellman Jr., who died in a Lansdale nursing home in 2014, will be interred in the same Souderton grave as his parents.

The upcoming burials will bring the total to seven unclaimed dead moved out of local morgues and into final resting places since the July publication of this news organization’s project, The Unclaimed. The ongoing effort is examining the growing impact of unclaimed dead on local governments. It is also attempting to tell the stories of hundreds of unclaimed dead in Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and Burlington County, New Jersey.

The Bortners ended up in Montgomery County after a man claiming to be the couple’s grandson came to the coroner’s office and left their cremated remains, which were inside a USPS Priority Mail box, about five years ago, according to Balacki. It is unknown who had the remains before they were left with the coroner.

After this news organization found documents, including a World War II veterans compensation application, for Bortner that showed he served in the U.S. Army from 1942-1946, Balacki forwarded the information to the county and federal veterans organizations to determine his eligibility for a military burial.

This news organization provided Balacki with additional documentation confirming the Bornters’ marriage, allowing his wife to be buried with him.

Balacki plans to attend the burial service at Washington Crossing.

A local funeral home employee found Fellman’s parents were buried in a Souderton cemetery, information this news organization gave Balacki. At the time of his dead, Fellman’s brother formally declined to claim his body, but with the new information Balacki reached out to the cemetery, which agreed to place Fellman's ashes on top of his parents, and the digging service agreed to waive its fee.

Last week five unclaimed Bucks County veterans were buried with military honors at Washington Crossing National Veterans Cemetery after this news organization found previously unknown military documentation. The five men had been in storage at the county morgue for five to 12 years after their deaths.

This story originally appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times on Sept. 5, 2019.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Three more unclaimed dead to get final resting places