A Mississippi man buried in a pauper’s grave finally gets a proper funeral

Jonathan David Hankins' family spent more than a year and a half searching for him, unaware that he'd been found dead and buried in a Mississippi pauper's grave

This article is part of “Lost Rites,” a series on America’s failed death notification system.

MENDENHALL, Miss. — Gretchen Hankins arrived at a rural church cemetery early Saturday afternoon and walked along a row of granite headstones, reading out each name. One marked the spot where a cousin was buried. Another listed her brother’s name, and another her uncle. Next to her mother’s headstone, she arrived at a freshly dug grave that would soon, finally, hold her only son.

“I know it’s just the body,” she said. “But everybody needs a place you can go to sometimes to tell your family members you love them after they’re gone.”

It had been more than 17 months since Hinds County authorities declared the body of her 39-year-old son, Jonathan David Hankins, “unclaimed” and had him buried in a pauper’s field outside the Hinds County jail work farm in Raymond, an hour’s drive away.

That grave was dug by inmates and marked only by a number — 645 — hand-painted on a metal post.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-man-buried-paupers-grave-funeral-rcna137476

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