9 Investigates

Orange County tells NY woman it will cost thousands to exhume long-lost brother's remains

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — In a patch of grass near SR-429 that most would regard as nothing more than a ditch, sits the final resting place for some of Orange County’s poor, forgotten, and abandoned.

Agnes Smith’s long-lost brother, Thomas Lowery, died in 2017. His ashes were buried in the cemetery, which is run by Orange County, in July 2018.

Smith, who lives in New York, begged Orange County leaders for help after she found out her brother's ashes were buried there. But it turned out retrieving his remains was neither simple nor cheap.

“I was devastated, and I’m still devastated over it,” Smith told 9 Investigates.

At first, county leaders told her it would cost thousands of dollars to disinter his ashes.

Smith can’t afford to visit the plot in person. Her brother's plot is the newest in the Garden of Rest. It still has a temporary marker.

“I didn’t want to be in this situation. I wanted to find him. I found him a year too late," Smith said. "At least if I bring him home with me, I'd feel a little bit better.”

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Smith and her brothers were split up as children after their parents died. She launched a search and found Lowery died alone in Orange County in 2017.

“I can’t imagine if I had one of my siblings, or someone who passes away, and I don't know where they are,” said Marie Renta, the program manager for Orange County’s Indigent Cremation and Burial Services. Her team did an investigation when Lowery died to try to find his next of kin, with no results.

Lowery’s ashes weren’t buried until this July because one county-owned vault can hold up to a dozen peoples’ cremains.  Removing and opening the vault will mean it has to be replaced at a cost of $2,500.

“This is taxpayers’ dollars, and we want to make sure we are good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars,” Renta said.

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This year, the county has paid for more than 200 cremations and burials at a cost of around $180,000.  In all, there are about 3,000 indigents cremated or buried in Orange County plots, but Renta knows of only one other instance in which a family has come forward to ask for the ashes.

For Smith, it was only a question of cost.

“I just would like my brother home, that's what I would like,” Smith said.

After 9 Investigates started asking questions about the case, county leaders agreed to only charge Smith the cost of the cremation itself, which is $500. She says she’s in the process of coordinating getting the ashes to New York.

Contact 9 Investigates reporter Karla Ray

Karla Ray

Karla Ray, WFTV.com

Karla Ray anchors Eyewitness News This Morning on Saturday and Sundays, and is an investigative reporter for the 9 Investigates unit.