Missing In America
(Click this link below)
https://www.miap.us/
https://www.miap.us/
We visit funeral homes and ask to inventory their unclaimed remains. We inventory every remain searching for veterans, spouses, and eligible children. We inventory and submit paperwork for every remain. Some veterans do not have a veteran status listed in their death certificate. Most of the unclaimed remains are from veterans that have no family or have lost touch with any family they may have. We use genealogists to search for family members. If we find family we will provide the information to the funeral home or we can contact the families. If no family is found we accept them as our family and we prepare a service. We provide urns, and set up a funeral service with full military honors for every veteran.
Sometimes we do receive calls about remains that have been found. We gather as much information as we can then submit to the VA to check to see if they are a veteran. If they are we handle them the same as if we were working with a funeral home.
When we are allowed to inventory we submit all paperwork to the VA to check for eligibility. After eligibility is established the Iowa law states (other states will have different regulations) we have to wait 180 days before we can initiate the transfer from the funeral home for interment at a state or national veterans cemetery. We have a hard time getting funeral homes to let us inventory their unclaimed. Even with the law we helped get changed in 2016, which allows funeral homes to work with us with no penalty.
We carry insurance to do this work and we accept all liability. We have a very small group of volunteers as privacy is very important and we do handle personal information. Even the funeral homes we work with we do not release the name unless they want us to. Most will allow the release of their name when we get to the funeral portion. Privacy is very important to us.
Thanks to Mary Crouse, State Missing In America Project Coordinator for Iowa, who providing this information.
Sometimes we do receive calls about remains that have been found. We gather as much information as we can then submit to the VA to check to see if they are a veteran. If they are we handle them the same as if we were working with a funeral home.
When we are allowed to inventory we submit all paperwork to the VA to check for eligibility. After eligibility is established the Iowa law states (other states will have different regulations) we have to wait 180 days before we can initiate the transfer from the funeral home for interment at a state or national veterans cemetery. We have a hard time getting funeral homes to let us inventory their unclaimed. Even with the law we helped get changed in 2016, which allows funeral homes to work with us with no penalty.
We carry insurance to do this work and we accept all liability. We have a very small group of volunteers as privacy is very important and we do handle personal information. Even the funeral homes we work with we do not release the name unless they want us to. Most will allow the release of their name when we get to the funeral portion. Privacy is very important to us.
Thanks to Mary Crouse, State Missing In America Project Coordinator for Iowa, who providing this information.