Video: Transporting A Deceased Loved One Over State Lines

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – When a loved one passes away in a different state, steps have to be taken to get them home.

That’s the process family members of the victims killed in the car crash in Lee County last week are going through now.

The victims are from Illinois and their families are working to get their bodies back home from Mississippi.

It’s a process coroners and funeral homes are familiar with all across the country.

Getting a body back to loved ones out of town can be a long and expensive process.

It begins with the coroner finding the deceased person’s residency.

“Then, call the sheriff’s department from that county and then have them go notify the next of kin. Once the next of kin has been notified, I ask the next of kin, you know, what funeral home that they want to use or to make the removal,” says Oktibbeha County Coroner Michael Hunt.

Once the family decides, the funeral home takes over.

“We call them, they make the initial removal and then again, we have the body sent to a morgue and then from that point, you know, we try to get up with another funeral home that’s going to do the final services,” says Hunt.

Then, the local funeral home works with the out of state funeral home to get the body back to where it needs to go.

“Of course, getting permits, authorizations, and certain things like that for laws that we have to abide by to get people back and then making sure the travel is okay. There is preparation on our end that has to be done prior to a person traveling,” says Lowndes Funeral Home Director, Caleb Pounders.

Pounders says the the most critical part is making sure the body arrives safely.

“Preparation on our end or wherever they’re coming from, usually a person has to be embalmed or cremated before they can travel over state lines and that’s just part of the laws that each individual state has.”

The family decides if they want their loved one to be transported by car or plane.

“Usually, if somebody is going to fly or even travel by vehicle, if it’s a pretty substantial amount of miles associated with that, you’re looking at maybe a cost of a thousand dollars or more, in addition, in excess to what the traditional, regular funeral would cost,” says Pounders.