By admin 
NORTH CAROLINA (WJZY) — When a person dies and there’s no one to claim the body, sometimes it’s because the family doesn’t even know.
Read more Despite high above normal rainfall, central NC drought continues, little improvement seen
Sheila Williams from Davidson learned in a painful way how a loved one can slip through the cracks.
Williams says her cousin, Clarissa Nielsen, was unmarried, mentally ill, and a recluse in her Raleigh home.
“You’ve reached out. She seems ok,” Williams said. “You’ve got your own life too.”
She wishes she had pushed harder to connect with and help Nielsen.
“Through that mental illness, she refused help,” Williams said. “Her neighbors tried to help her, and she would scream at them.”
Last December, Williams saw a Facebook post that suggested Nielsen had died.
Several frantic calls confirmed that not only was it true, but Clarissa had been dead for six months.
The family has 22 cousins, and no one knew.
“It’s a profound sadness,” Williams said. “Then we were like, ‘Where’s her body?’”
Nielsen was moved to North Carolina’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Officials performed an autopsy, determined she died of natural causes, then cremated her.
Williams can’t understand why no one reached out to Nielsen’s family.
“If it took me only an hour to put all the pieces together [using the state’s search software], it just makes me question how deep did they really go?”
Department of Health and Human Services officials said in a statement, “Reasonable effort is made to locate relatives of the decedent. This includes working with law enforcement and the county Medical Examiner…Searches may include news articles, software connection to public records for identification, and an online genealogy database query.”
Read more Max Verstappen leaves his F1 future open but says things are ‘really good’ with Red Bull team boss
If family can’t be found or can’t claim them for financial reasons, which is common, the state stores the ashes for three years, then scatters them miles off the Atlantic coast.
When someone goes unclaimed without needing an autopsy, county social services departments take responsibility.
Mecklenburg County sends its unclaimed to Eddie Pigg and his wife, Teresa.
They own Pigg Family Services, a funeral home in Bessemer City.
“Sometimes there’s people who have nobody,” Eddie Pigg said. “We’ve done several homeless cases for Mecklenburg County, so it makes you wonder, ‘Are they looking for them? Have they thought about them?’”
The Piggs have the bodies cremated at a west Charlotte crematory.
“One week we had maybe seven people in just a week’s time that had been unclaimed persons,” Pigg said.
The ashes are stored for at least six months, then the Piggs will dispose of the remains.
They haven’t scattered any ashes yet because the agreement with the county is too new, but Pigg says he plans to scatter dozens of sets of ashes on his family’s farm near Albemarle.
“If someone’s looking [for the person], we can post that information, and they can find them,” Pigg said. “They know they’re at peace; they know where they’re at.”
Williams is glad she and her family claimed their cousin before strangers disposed of Nielsen’s ashes.
“If someone’s alone like that, don’t assume they have it together and don’t need help,” Williams said. “If you’re dependent on the state to contact you, you may not get that call.”
Read more How to protect yourself from the bad air caused by wildfires
More than 900 people died in North Carolina last year and went unclaimed.