Kane Coroner to entomb 40 unclaimed cremains

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – Lois Butcher, Paul Bolliger, Margaret Rust and Gordon Thompson likely shared nothing together in life.

But in death, theirs are among the 40 unclaimed cremains that Kane County Coroner Rob Russell hopes next of kin will claim before they are entombed after a memorial service next month.

This will be the fifth such memorial service in nine years by Russell and St. Charles Township officials so that the unclaimed cremated remains – cremains – get a decent burial, according to a news release.

“A sad note to the upcoming memorial and entombment is the increased number of unclaimed deceased that the Coroner’s Office has been forced to care for in recent years,” Russell said in the release.

“Between 2019-2022, it has only gotten worse with 40 unclaimed cremains to be entombed, more than the total number of unclaimed during the six years between 2013 and 2019,” Russell said in the release.

Because of the pandemic, the 2021 entombment was postponed until this year, according to the release.

The cremains will be interred at 10 a.m. May 27 after a nondenominational memorial service at North Cemetery in St. Charles.

Shortly after taking office in 2012, Russell discovered 47 unclaimed cremains in the storage room of the Coroner’s Office, some with a date of death as far back as 1952.

Six of those original cremains were reunited with family, some from as far away as Australia.

In 2013, Russell organized a nondenominational memorial service and entombment for the remaining unclaimed, according to the release.

Soon after that story went public, the then St. Charles Township supervisor contacted Russell and offered the use of an already paid for unused tomb.

The cremains of 41 deceased were laid to rest at North Cemetery in St. Charles at no cost to Kane County.

The community partnership continues with St. Charles Township Supervisor Ron Johnson.

“People are not claiming their family members,” Russell said in the release.

“In recent years. we have seen an uptick in the number of unclaimed. Our staff does the best job possible to contact next of kin, but some people simply refuse to claim their family members,” Russell said in the release. “We cannot force them. Sometimes, the deceased have no surviving family. I believe it is our responsibility to provide a dignified final resting place for these unclaimed individuals.”

The Coroner’s Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying the next of kin for the 40 cremains scheduled to be entombed next month.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Coroner’s Office at 630-232-3535.

Names and dates of death are:

• Susan Elizabeth Visser – Aug. 20, 2016

• David Media Ceja Castellanos – May 6, 2019

• Duane Gene Ackmann – Aug. 8, 2019

• Robert Randal Labisoniere – Aug. 26, 2019

• Alfred G. Brauch – Sept. 20, 2019

• Lois Johnson – Dec. 21, 2019

• Ricardo O. Bruce – Dec. 25, 2019

• Joseph Peter Rizzo – Dec. 25, 2019

• Gary Michael Kursaitis – Jan. 30, 2020

• Zoraida Laureano – Feb. 10, 2020

• Guy Mario Way – March 7, 2020

• Joe Duane Craig – March 29, 2020

• Emmett L. Hill – April 2, 2020

• Lorrie A. Moore – April 17, 2020

• Gordon Thompson – May 9, 2020

• Gregory Rossi – June 9, 2020

• Charlie Casillas – July 10, 2020

• Richard Tamme – July 15, 2020

• Phil Edwin Dierschow – July 30, 2020

• Eulalio Nieves – Aug. 1, 2020

• Avadhani Mallela – Aug. 13, 2020

• Gerald Guss – Dec. 2, 2020

• John Charles Paulauski III – Dec. 11, 2020

• James J. Bell – Dec. 30, 2020

• Margaret Rust – Dec. 31, 2020

• Robert David Warburton – Jan. 8, 2021

• Roger L. Barnes – Feb. 1, 2021

• Lois Butcher – April 4, 2021

• Derrick Witcher – April 13, 2021

• Kenneth Brian Kapusta – July 14, 2021

• Paul Bolliger – Aug. 29, 2021

• James Sodt – Sept. 3, 2021

• Valerie Cole – Sept. 5, 2021

• Thomas Gilmer Frost – Sept. 28, 2021

• Regina Tosco – Oct. 18, 2021

• Edward L. Anderson – Nov. 6, 2021

• John H. Olsen – Nov. 12, 2021

• Jerry Richards – Nov. 24, 2021

Police found two others in Kane County:

• Calvin Gilkey – Oct. 29, 2013

• Everet Lloyd “Jack” Knabb – Sept. 2, 2000