cheemsg
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Found a good article about what happened to Wayne County's UIDs on Newspapers.com. I don't have a subscription so I can't make a clipping but I'll do my best to paste. (If anyone could make a clipping for me)
Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan on May 28, 1990 · Page 7
Hundreds of Michigan's missing and homeless people every year receive anonymous funerals like these three at a site in Ann Arbor. Hundreds receive a pauper's funeral Unclaimed bodies are buried alone By Doug Bradford Detroit News Staff Writer There were no services. No one was there to pray. No one was there to cry. It was just another group burial of unidentified bodies at United Memorial Gardens in Washtenaw County's Superior Township. Workers lifted the three plain wood boxes, containing the bodies of two women and a man identified only by numbers, and lowered them side by side into the big hole in the ground. There was to have been a fourth body in the mass grave. But it was identified just one day before entering eternity in anonymity. The body was that of Joseph Soborowski, 57, a reclusive lifelong Detroiter who had been found dead of a heart attack by police on Jan. 23. There was no identification in the apartment, said his sister, Albina Szajner of Detroit, and police did not know whom to contact. Szajner had been recuperating from a heart attack when her brother was found, she said. After days without hearing from Soborowski, she was worried. "He used to come over at least every three weeks, used to cut my grass," Szajner said, "and then he stopped coming around." She began to pray; then she began making inquiries. Eventually, she talked with Harry Hamilton, chief investigator of the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. The description of her brother matched one of the files of unidentified bodies. "They found it was him through his fingerprints," said Szajner, "and through his bent finger. When he was a little kid, he cut his finger somehow and it never healed right ... it was bent. Soborowski was to have been buried with the three others at United Memorial Gardens, near Ann Arbor, on April 6. All four bodies came from the Perry Funeral Home in Detroit by way of the Wayne County Morgue, which keeps unidentified bodies 30 to 60 days, then sends them for a pauper's burial. Hamilton said the morgue gets several hundred such bodies a year. All but about five are identified. The former Detroit and Grosse Point policeman keeps records on each body. Most of the unidentified are from society's edges drug addicts, prostitutes and derelicts. Others may be amnesia victims or runaways, or murder or accident victims.
The graves of the roughly 100 unidentified people buried at United Memorial Gardens are marked only by numbers. "We keep a record of where each person on the death certificate is," said Edwin Wensley, who opened United Memorial in 1953. The Michigan Department of Social Services (DSS) pays for the funeral home preparations and the burial. The costs vary. If found, relatives may be asked to pay. "We get only $85 a burial" for most unknowns or those unclaimed, Wensley said. "It's not what we want to do, but it must be done by someone." A DSS spokesman said that in fiscal 1988-89, the state paid $4.3 million to bury 5,094 unclaimed bodies. Of those, 2,154 were from Wayne County and cost $1.9 million. No figures are available on the numbers of, and costs for, unidentified bodies. Hamilton sent word to the Perry home to bring the body of Joseph Soborowski back from the cemetery. Szajner said her brother, who was a maintenance worker who cut grass to add to his income, GUS CHAN1 he Delroil News Albina Szajner of Detroit holds a picture of her deceased brother, Joseph Soborowski. went to school through the eighth grade. He read a lot and was well-versed in numerous subjects, but did not like to be around people and often told her he just wanted to be alone. His mother died when he was 10; his father died when he was 14 or 15. He never married. Soborowski, survived by four sisters, including Szajner, and two brothers, had a funeral April 11 in St. Stephen Church in Detroit. He was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Livonia, with a name instead of a number. "We're going to get him a stone, too," Szajner said. "So, anyway, it's a beautiful ending."
Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan on May 28, 1990 · Page 7
Hundreds of Michigan's missing and homeless people every year receive anonymous funerals like these three at a site in Ann Arbor. Hundreds receive a pauper's funeral Unclaimed bodies are buried alone By Doug Bradford Detroit News Staff Writer There were no services. No one was there to pray. No one was there to cry. It was just another group burial of unidentified bodies at United Memorial Gardens in Washtenaw County's Superior Township. Workers lifted the three plain wood boxes, containing the bodies of two women and a man identified only by numbers, and lowered them side by side into the big hole in the ground. There was to have been a fourth body in the mass grave. But it was identified just one day before entering eternity in anonymity. The body was that of Joseph Soborowski, 57, a reclusive lifelong Detroiter who had been found dead of a heart attack by police on Jan. 23. There was no identification in the apartment, said his sister, Albina Szajner of Detroit, and police did not know whom to contact. Szajner had been recuperating from a heart attack when her brother was found, she said. After days without hearing from Soborowski, she was worried. "He used to come over at least every three weeks, used to cut my grass," Szajner said, "and then he stopped coming around." She began to pray; then she began making inquiries. Eventually, she talked with Harry Hamilton, chief investigator of the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. The description of her brother matched one of the files of unidentified bodies. "They found it was him through his fingerprints," said Szajner, "and through his bent finger. When he was a little kid, he cut his finger somehow and it never healed right ... it was bent. Soborowski was to have been buried with the three others at United Memorial Gardens, near Ann Arbor, on April 6. All four bodies came from the Perry Funeral Home in Detroit by way of the Wayne County Morgue, which keeps unidentified bodies 30 to 60 days, then sends them for a pauper's burial. Hamilton said the morgue gets several hundred such bodies a year. All but about five are identified. The former Detroit and Grosse Point policeman keeps records on each body. Most of the unidentified are from society's edges drug addicts, prostitutes and derelicts. Others may be amnesia victims or runaways, or murder or accident victims.
The graves of the roughly 100 unidentified people buried at United Memorial Gardens are marked only by numbers. "We keep a record of where each person on the death certificate is," said Edwin Wensley, who opened United Memorial in 1953. The Michigan Department of Social Services (DSS) pays for the funeral home preparations and the burial. The costs vary. If found, relatives may be asked to pay. "We get only $85 a burial" for most unknowns or those unclaimed, Wensley said. "It's not what we want to do, but it must be done by someone." A DSS spokesman said that in fiscal 1988-89, the state paid $4.3 million to bury 5,094 unclaimed bodies. Of those, 2,154 were from Wayne County and cost $1.9 million. No figures are available on the numbers of, and costs for, unidentified bodies. Hamilton sent word to the Perry home to bring the body of Joseph Soborowski back from the cemetery. Szajner said her brother, who was a maintenance worker who cut grass to add to his income, GUS CHAN1 he Delroil News Albina Szajner of Detroit holds a picture of her deceased brother, Joseph Soborowski. went to school through the eighth grade. He read a lot and was well-versed in numerous subjects, but did not like to be around people and often told her he just wanted to be alone. His mother died when he was 10; his father died when he was 14 or 15. He never married. Soborowski, survived by four sisters, including Szajner, and two brothers, had a funeral April 11 in St. Stephen Church in Detroit. He was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Livonia, with a name instead of a number. "We're going to get him a stone, too," Szajner said. "So, anyway, it's a beautiful ending."