The story of Hinds County’s pauper’s field in Mississippi sheds even more light on an alarming situation involving negligence on the part of the local government. The inaction of the county’s officials led to anguish for the families of deceased individuals who were never notified that their loved ones were buried in the field.
Since at least 2016, deceased individuals who were unclaimed by family members have been buried along a dirt road on a jail work farm, their graves marked only by metal rods and numbers.
This practice is not uncommon, but in this case, the local government has come under scrutiny after reports surfaced about several disturbing cases.
For centuries, the solemn duty of burying people who died with no money or known family has fallen to local governments. Some coroners and medical examiners conduct exhaustive searches for surviving family members, scouring the internet and government databases for clues.
But others do not complete the job.
This has become evident in Hinds County, where NBC News has found several cases in which people died and were buried in the pauper’s field even though their families were looking for them — or weren’t hard to find.
The families say they would have gladly claimed their loved ones' bodies and given them a proper funeral. Instead, they say, the pauper’s burials left them traumatized and damaged their trust in the government.
The cases of Jonathan David Hankins, Dexter Wade, and Marrio Moore brought this issue to light. Hankins, who was reported missing in June 2022, was found buried in the pauper’s field without the knowledge of his family. The authorities also buried Wade and Moore in the field without bothering to contact their families, who were actively looking for them.
Hankins was buried in a pauper's field, which is typically used for deceased individuals without surviving family.
Except Hankins' mother was still alive, but she was never notified despite months of followup calls to the Rankin County Sheriff's Office, where Hankins was reported missing, NBC News reported.
The sheriff's office posted missing person posters about Hankins on its social media page and reportedly continued to search for the father of a young girl in August 2022, without knowing he was already buried in the Hinds County Penal Farm.
The families of Dexter Wade and Marrio Moore went through similar nightmares. Wade died after being hit by a police car, and Moore was beaten to death.
As with Hankins, Wade's and Moore's deaths were handled by the Jackson Police Department and Hinds County Coroner's Office, which failed to notify their families and buried them in the pauper's field.
"It feels like they threw him away like trash," Jeannie Jones, Hankins' aunt, told NBC News. "No caring. No feeling."
While there has been much finger-pointing between various agencies involved, the responsibility appears to lie with the Jackson Police Department and the Hinds County Coroner’s Office. The police department claimed it was not its responsibility to notify the families after their deceased loved ones were found. However, the coroner’s office, whose job it is to request the pauper’s burials, did not provide any answers either.
Unfortunately, this is what tends to happen when the government is neglectful. Those involved shy away from taking responsibility and try to cast blame on external forces. Meanwhile, it is the citizenry who suffers.
In this case, the government’s inaction resulted in a failure to respect the dignity of the deceased and the right of the family to know what happened to their kin. While it might be too late for other families, hopefully, this situation prompts the county to examine the areas in which it went wrong. Perhaps this could lead to a change in policy that will ensure that this does not happen to more families.
