Vietnam vet had no family to claim him in death. These Montco employees fulfilled his final wishes

John Williams died alone in the hospital two days after Christmas last year.

Abington Memorial Hospital patient records listed no family contacts, which meant the body of the 76-year-old man was transferred to the county coroner, the standard operating procedure for unclaimed dead in Pennsylvania. It often means their remains end up in a county storage room or buried in a mass grave.

In Montgomery County, where Williams lived and died, however, the coroner’s office handles the abandoned dead a little differently.

On Friday, after months of searching for next of kin, Williams' final wishes were fulfilled.

His ashes were buried in a Willow Grove cemetery beside his mother, Evelyn, who died in 1984.

The mourners at his Friday service were mostly county employees whom Williams never met. It was through their efforts he was able to be buried in the place where he wanted to be.

When Williams' body arrived at the coroner’s office late last year, it was initially sent to Humanity’s Gifts, an organization that donates bodies to local medical schools, Montgomery County First Deputy Coroner Alexander Balacki said.

But Williams' body was rejected. The program learned he had served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, and it doesn't accept military veterans since they can qualify for a free burial with honors at a veterans cemetery.

Over the last four years, the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office has identified and arranged the burials of at least eight veterans who had gone unclaimed. Some of them had been dead for years, but their veteran status was not known at the time of their death.

Currently, the office is awaiting military paperwork for seven unclaimed veterans who died in the last year, Balacki said. Their ashes likely will be interred at the National Veterans Cemetery in Washington Crossing, which holds a monthly memorial service for unclaimed veterans.

Coroner's office discovers final resting place

When Williams' body returned to the coroner's office, Adam Shellenhamer got to work. He is a deputy coroner and genealogy analyst, a job title he has held officially since April.

For the last two years, Shellenhamer has been responsible for conducting background checks on unclaimed dead in an attempt to learn if there are living family members or other final arrangements that could prevent someone going unclaimed and ending up in a county storage room with the ashes of roughly 150 other unclaimed dead dating as far back as 2007.

As he honed his research skills on the job, Shellenhamer learned that he had a knack for detective work for the dead. He could find relatives that other people couldn’t.

“Over time, I realized it's really important to honor the decedents we have,” he said.

Many times, he learns the unclaimed person was long estranged from family members, who don't want to accept responsibility for the remains. But the ability to let them know the person died and give them a sense of closure is important to him, Shellenhamer said.

When Shellenhamer dug into the life of John Williams, he didn’t find much.

He lived in the Willow Grove house that his mother left him. There were no records showing Williams had married or had children. An old obituary offered more clues: He was an only child. He had an Aunt Delores. His mother was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Willow Grove.

The cemetery records showed that Williams handled his mother’s final arrangements, Shellenhamer said. They also confirmed the space next to hers was purchased for her son.

But while the plot was paid for, no services had been arranged to open the grave, he was told.

At that point, Shellenhamer reached out to a group of volunteer online sleuths called unclaimedpersons.org, which helps coroners locate next-of-kin. The group located one relative, a cousin living in California.

Shellenhamer contacted the cousin, but he did not want to claim Williams. He did agree to sign paperwork authorizing a county cremation, which took place in January.

The only option left for Shellenhamer to pursue was burial in a veterans cemetery.

The long journey for Susan Triano Her unclaimed remains sat in Montco coroner's office since 2013. Now she will be given a final resting place

More about the unclaimed dead A final resting place for the youngest unclaimed dead gives one mother hope for closure

Who was Sir Richard?: Unclaimed: Abandoned by family, taken in by strangers

But before he started that process, Shellenhamer wanted to reach out to the county’s veteran affairs office. Maybe the staff there knew of funding that could cover the cost of opening the grave, which can range from $500 to more than $1,000, so Williams could be buried where he wanted.

Veteran Affairs Director Dennis Miller, a retired U.S. Coast Guard veteran, worked up a presentation for Montgomery County Commissioners, hoping they could find money for the burial.

Before the commissioners could decide, though, Shellenhamer got a call from the cemetery: The contractor it uses to dig graves heard about Williams. He was a military veteran, and agreed to waive his fee.

Miller arranged for the presence of a local VFW honor guard at the service, which included a three-volley salute, honors typically reserved for veteran cemeteries. Shellenhamer shepherded the box carrying the ashes to the grave site. A VFW District 16 chaplain offered a prayer.

A fellow Vietnam veteran lowered the remains into the ground. A new American flag and brass holder were planted beside the grave.

Days like Friday remind him how important his job is, Shellenhamer said.

“I feel like we owe it to the decedents family to let them know and get them back where they belong,” he said.

Editor's Note: This news organization has been telling the stories of unclaimed dead and their impact on the community since 2019. As of this publication, the cremated remains of 60 people have found final resting places. But hundreds more remain unclaimed in Bucks and Montgomery counties. Our original Unclaimed stories can be accessed here and include updated names of the unclaimed dead in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Montgomery County employees arrange Vietnam vet's burial beside mother