Hinds County could lose off-site body storage

By Mina Corpuz and Leonardo Bevilacqua | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Hinds County may soon end its six-year arrangement providing a temporary morgue space to handle a backlog of unclaimed bodies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in homicides. 

Robert Graham, president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, said the coroner is working toward getting unclaimed bodies out of the space the office has used since 2020. The county entered an agreement with Hinds County Community College, which owns the building on Highway 18 about a mile from its Raymond campus. 

The need to make the move gained urgency last month. A power outage at the temporary morgue shut down the coolers where the bodies were being held, WLBT reported. 

Graham referred questions about what would need to be done to clear the space and how it would be accomplished to Coroner Jermiah Howard, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Last week in a statement, the college said it entered an equipment use agreement with the board of supervisors to use the space for cold storage. The college has “neither controlled nor been responsible for the use or maintenance of the facility.” 

College spokesperson Karin Meadows declined to respond to Graham’s comment that the coroner’s office has been asked to wind down use of the facility. 

During the height of the pandemic, the coroner’s office struggled to keep up with recording deaths in the county and transporting the bodies, Howard previously told Missisisppi Today. The need for space also came from a record high 155 homicides in Jackson in 2021, his predecessor, Sharon Grisham-Stewart said in 2022. 

The coroner’s office processes more unclaimed bodies than it has in the past decade, according to Howard. 

Hinds County had at least 24 unclaimed bodies in 2019, 17 in 2024 and 20 through August 2025. Records show identification was listed for unclaimed bodies for those years. 

One way to process unclaimed bodies is through pauper burials in a cemetery behind the Hinds County Penal Farm in Jackson. These burials are meant for families who cannot afford a burial and those whose bodies are unclaimed. 

Unclaimed bodies have been an ongoing issue for the board of supervisors for at least the past year, according to meeting agendas and minutes. Hinds County records show the number of pauper burials surpassed 20 last year. 

Graham said the process for the county to approve a pauper burial starts with the coroner’s office. 

State law directs counties to make reasonable efforts to notify a person’s family members about a body. If the body is not claimed for burial or cremation within five days, the board of supervisors or coroner can approve burial.

After exhausting family contact and checks with law enforcement agencies to determine if a person is missing, Graham said the coroner can recommend a pauper burial. 

A need for a procedure and checks for unclaimed bodies became clear in 2023, when the county buried three men in the Hinds paupers’ cemetery without officials telling their families they died. Bettersten Wade had been looking for her son Dexter unaware his body had been labeled unclaimed and buried in the paupers’ cemetery. 

Last year, county officials made further investments to help process unclaimed bodies. The board voted to install plaques beside plots in the paupers’ field, which Graham has told Mississippi Today would provide more dignity to their burial.

The temporary morgue also stores bodies as families make burial arrangements. At least 33 were stored there, according to most recent county records available through August 2025. The year earlier, at least 55 bodies were sent to storage.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article