BY ERSHAD KAMOL
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner — located in Charleston — is awaiting approval of a new set of rules that will empower it to dispose of remains of 275 bodies retained for years in its freezer and storage.
The emergency rule went into effect June 23 and it will be open for public comment until July 25, said Allison Adler, Department of Health and Human Resources spokeswoman.
“After consideration of any comments received, the agency will approve the rule, including any changes based on comments, for filing with the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee, which will begin meeting this fall to approve the rule as filed or recommend modifications,” Adler said.
During the 2023 regular session, Adler said, the rule will be placed in a bill and considered by the state Legislature and possibly amended during committee meetings or on the floor of either house.
OCME drafted the rules following passage of HB 4559 during the 2022 session, which required the OCME to propose rules related to establishment of a cemetery for interring remains and to determine the appropriate length of time remains may be kept prior to burial or cremation.
The bill was passed following a Performance Evaluation and Research Division (PERD) audit report in November 2021 that recommended amending the state code to empower OCME to dispose of remains.
PERD said the medical examiner’s office was overburdened with remains and lacked space to accommodate so many for extended periods.
Currently, the office, part of the Department of Health and Human Resources, has 190 unclaimed remains and 85 unidentified bodies in its custody. Four of these remains, including one body, have been retained from the 1970s, along with three other bodies, from the 1980s.
The bodies of 86 decedents have been preserved in OCME’s freezer for years while 162 cremains are stored in separate boxes in its evidence storage room.
HB 4559 stipulates that OCME will cremate unclaimed human remains and will bury unidentified remains from its facilities. OCME, with assistance from the city of Charleston, will locate an appropriate cemetery.
Unidentified remains will be buried after six months and after efforts to identify the person and his or her next of kin have been exhausted by the OCME, the bill says. “In the event the death is determined to be the result of a crime, physical evidence shall be collected from the decedent’s body prior to any burial.”
The bill says any identified but unclaimed remains will be cremated after 30 days and after efforts to contact the decedent’s next of kin have been exhausted, as determined by the OCME, and placed in a cemetery in a manner that the remains may be easily retrieved by the OCME in the event the decedent’s next of kin wishes to claim the remains.
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