DuPage Coroner Rejects Claim of Unidentified Bodies

Naperville Sun reporter Bill Bird stated in an article published on Saturday that the DuPage County Morgue is holding five unidentified bodies.

"The DuPage County Coroner's Office currently holds the bodies or remains of five unidentified people in its morgue, one of whom has languished in that particular purgatory for nearly seven years," Bird wrote. The article focused on the challenges coroners face with unidentified bodies.

Bird quoted DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen in describing how the coroner's office hadn't been able to identify a dead man found in the Herrick Lake Forest Preserve back in 2010. Bird said that the coroner declined to discuss other unidentified bodies.

The day after the article was published, Jorgensen published a statement asserting that there were no other unidentified remains.

"As the reporter was repeatedly told, there is only one unidentified deceased person in the morgue of the DuPage County Coroner," Jorgensen said in a press release. Jorgensen said the identity of a deceased person in his morgue may be withheld from the public due to an ongoing investigation, continuing efforts to notify the next of kin or arrangements for burial.

The coroner appeared to be concerned that the families of missing persons would find unwarranted hope of closure in the news that there were still unidentified bodies in his morgue.

"Particularly in this holiday season, we wish to dispel any false hope created by this article and assure those seeking to find their missing loved ones that we have only one unidentified deceased in our morgue," Jorgensen said.

As of Monday night, Bill Bird did not immediately respond to an email inquiring about the coroner's statement.

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