BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. — Bernalillo County laid to rest 171 people who recently died but were never claimed by their loved ones.
During Thursday’s ceremony at Fairview Memorial Park, 19 civil servants served as pallbearers – including all five county commissioners, Sheriff John Allen and deputy county managers. The county kept the 171 people as cremains for two years while they tried to contact their loved ones.
“We’re here to honor and remember those among us who, in death, perhaps have no family. Maybe they have no one to speak their name or maybe they have no one to stand at their graveside. Yet, today, we ensure that they are not forgotten,” one official acknowledged…