Towns' will now be responsible for processing bodies in deaths that are not medical examiner cases following major budget cuts for the state of Connecticut, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano said.
"This is another burden on our towns that they are not equipped to handle," Fasano said. "This is an issue of humanity, of public health, and of basic respect for the people of this state."
In the past, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner would take the bodies of people who had died and not been claimed by family as a courtesy, Fasno said.
However, Chief Medical Examiner James Gill M.D. said that "due to budget cuts and storage facility limitations" local municipalities will need to take on the burden.
Gill said the estimate of unclaimed bodies are fewer than 100 a year in the whole state.
