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News / Northwest

Ceremony held for indigent dead in King County

By Associated Press
Published: October 18, 2017, 10:28pm
4 Photos
Flowers rest near a grave marker that reads “Gone but not forgotten, these people of King County October 2017” at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Renton.
Flowers rest near a grave marker that reads “Gone but not forgotten, these people of King County October 2017” at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Renton. Photo Gallery

RENTON — The names of 180 people who died in King County but whose families either could not be found or could not afford a burial were read aloud at a ceremony at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Renton.

The individual cremated remains were catalogued and buried Wednesday under a flat headstone that read “October 2017” and the phrase “Gone but not forgotten, these people of King County.”

A bagpiper played to open the service and law enforcement and fire department representatives stood sentry next to a memorial wreath. Several dozen people attended, even as rain fell outside a shelter above the grave.

The service was organized by the King County Indigent Remains program and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

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