King County burial ceremony honors record number of people without family — again

Hundreds of King County residents who died last year without family members to claim their remains were honored Wednesday in a special burial ceremony at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Renton.

Tucked on a grassy hill, mourners lay flowers at a headstone inscribed with the message, "Gone but not forgotten, these people of King County," representing the 405 people buried through the King County Medical Examiner's Office indigent remains program.

"Our presence proclaims that these, our sisters and brothers, will never be forgotten in this sacred place," said King County Sheriff's Department Chaplain Joel Ingebritson.

About 50 people attended Wednesday's indigent burial ceremony.

James Sosik Jr. with the King County Medical Examiner's Office said the number of people included in the ceremony grows each year they have it. It's hard to pin down an exact reason why, but Sosik said issues like homelessness, substance abuse, and estrangement come to light during the ceremony.

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Since 1993, the medical examiner's office has provided burials for King County residents without the financial resources or family to claim their remains.

Some individuals' stories are sadder than others.

"We have a gentleman here, he's only 40 years old. His parents died, he was the only child, there was nobody to take care of him," Sosik said. "He had funds, but there was just nobody to claim him."

Regardless of how someone's remains came into the care of the King County Medical Examiner's Office, Sosik says their life deserves a chance to be celebrated.

"People want to be respected in life, I think we should follow through and respect them in death as well," he said. "Everybody's taken care of, everybody's somebody."

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Among the mourners who came to pay their respects was Elaine Simons.

From the 1990s to 2019, Simons worked with unhoused youth in Seattle through the foundation she co-founded, Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets.

Over the years, Simons has attended several indigent remain ceremonies, but took a break. On Wednesday, she said she felt "compelled" to come.

As Simons listened to the ceremony, she wondered, would she hear the name of anyone she knew?

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Hundreds of names came and went. As the end of the list drew closer and closer, one name stood out: Rachael Weber.

Simons had met Weber decades ago, when she was a "feisty" teenage runaway living on Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Weber's mother had reached out to Simons to let her know that her daughter had passed — but before Simons could find out what had happened to her remains, Weber's mother died, too.

"I didn't know what happened to her. I didn't know if someone claimed her or anything," Simons said. "And so when I heard her name, it was like, 'Wow, there was a good reason to be here today.'"

Now, Simons said, she can tell Weber's friends where they can find her.

"She's with the people who have had her life journey," Simons said.