Scammer
Banned
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - Two unclaimed bodies from Portsmouth are finally resting in peace. The bodies were stuck at the morgue for months, while the city and sheriff's department argued over who would pay to have them cremated.
It turned out one of the deceased was a veteran.
68-year-old David Williams died on the Fourth of July from a heart attack. Thursday, he received a proper military burial in Suffolk.
His body was found at a lawn service company in Portsmouth. Workers assumed he was homeless. One of the workers told WAVY.com, "We've come out here and there's been two guys asleep on the mulch."
Williams' body sat at the Medical Examiner's office in Norfolk for four months. The body of another Portsmouth man, Samuel Hetzel was there eight months, until the state restored funding for indigent burials, last week.
Portsmouth Undersheriff John Gomoke said, "Its done. They both have been picked up, they've been cremated, and they're in the urns."
The sheriff's department fought with the city for weeks over who would pay the thousand dollars to cremate both men. 10 On Your Side demanded answers from the City Manager but he refused to talk to us.
Then the day after Election Day Gomoke said, "The Mayor strongly urged that we set up a meeting, and we did, and problem solved, credit the new mayor."
The state funding is only restored until the end of the year. The undersheriff said he and the city manager are working on it, and the money will likely be put into the sheiff's new budget as a line item.
A group called the ' Missing In America Project' discovered Williams was a veteran. They claimed his remains for a proper military burial, but WAVY.com wanted to know about the remains of Hetzel as well, who was not a veteran.
Gomoke said, "Right now, what happens is once the unclaimed body is cremated, it's stacked in a closet."
This is a closet inside a funeral home, not a cemetery. That is where his remains will stay unless someone comes to claim them.
It turned out one of the deceased was a veteran.
68-year-old David Williams died on the Fourth of July from a heart attack. Thursday, he received a proper military burial in Suffolk.
His body was found at a lawn service company in Portsmouth. Workers assumed he was homeless. One of the workers told WAVY.com, "We've come out here and there's been two guys asleep on the mulch."
Williams' body sat at the Medical Examiner's office in Norfolk for four months. The body of another Portsmouth man, Samuel Hetzel was there eight months, until the state restored funding for indigent burials, last week.
Portsmouth Undersheriff John Gomoke said, "Its done. They both have been picked up, they've been cremated, and they're in the urns."
The sheriff's department fought with the city for weeks over who would pay the thousand dollars to cremate both men. 10 On Your Side demanded answers from the City Manager but he refused to talk to us.
Then the day after Election Day Gomoke said, "The Mayor strongly urged that we set up a meeting, and we did, and problem solved, credit the new mayor."
The state funding is only restored until the end of the year. The undersheriff said he and the city manager are working on it, and the money will likely be put into the sheiff's new budget as a line item.
A group called the ' Missing In America Project' discovered Williams was a veteran. They claimed his remains for a proper military burial, but WAVY.com wanted to know about the remains of Hetzel as well, who was not a veteran.
Gomoke said, "Right now, what happens is once the unclaimed body is cremated, it's stacked in a closet."
This is a closet inside a funeral home, not a cemetery. That is where his remains will stay unless someone comes to claim them.