FOX 11 helps woman get brother's cremains
LOS ANGELES - On a Friday morning, Sheryl Hill walked into the LA County Crematorium and Cemetery in Los Angeles and said, "Hi, I’d like to pick up the cremains for Tracy Hill."
It’s something Hill had been wanting to do for the last five months but couldn’t.
"It’s been very frustrating, but it’s more frustrating for my mother, she’s 93 years old. She’s been waiting for her son’s remains to come home for five months," says Hill.
Her brother, Tracy Richmond Hill, died on March 21, 2020. His death occurring right at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, the LA County Coroner’s office and the County Health Department have been closed to the public. Hill was told she would have to wait to pick up her brother's cremains. Every time she made a call, Hill found herself being bounced from one department to another.
Frustrated, Hill turned to FOX 11 News asking for help. "I feel like the county is very insensitive, it’s so bureaucratic," says Hill.
One week later, after FOX 11 News first reported on Tracy Richmond Hill’s remains stuck in limbo, Sheryl was given permission to go in person to pick up a box with her brother’s ashes.
"I’m kind of in shock but I’m kind of happy, kind of sad. I want to cry but at least we got him, finally," says Hill. Her brother’s cremains will be taken to Seattle to be buried next to Hill’s father. Sheryl and her family say they’re grateful the wait is finally over. "Thank you, Gina, and thank everybody at Fox for me because it wouldn’t have happened without you guys, I really mean it."
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