The poor economy is taking a toll even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones. At the county coroner’s office — which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths — 36% more cremations were done at taxpayers’ expense in the last fiscal year over the previous year, from 525 to 712. The county morgue, which is responsible for the indigent and others who go unclaimed, saw a 25% increase in cremations in the first half of this year over the same period a year ago, rising to 680 from 545. The demands on the county crematorium have been so high that earlier this year, officials there stopped accepting bodies from the coroner. The coroner’s office since has contracted with two private crematories for $135,000 to handle the overflow. ‘It’s a pretty dramatic increase,’ said Lt. David Smith, a coroner’s investigator. ‘The families just tell us flat-out they don’t have the money to do a funeral.’ FOR THE RECORD: An article in Tuesday’s Section A about the increasing number of unclaimed bodies in Los Angeles County, as more […]