He laid alone for at least a week, maybe two.

Hunters found him along a fence line at a hunting camp near Sawmill Road and Highway 90 in Seminole. There was nothing they could do.

He laid alone at the Baldwin County Coroner's office while law enforcement scratched their heads and followed dead end leads. No witnesses. No nearby security cameras. There was nothing they could do.

Foul play was suspected, so he was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science. Samples were taken. Fingerprints were run through national registries. Every attempt to attach the lifeless body to a name and a story drew a blank.

There was nothing they could do.

So, now he remains alone in a government office. Celebrations for July 4, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas have passed.

And because he is nameless, and a potential murder victim, that's where he'll stay. Possibly indefinitely.

Death is complicated. For the unclaimed and unknown, there is no rest.

The man found in Seminole in April is one of 54 individuals in Baldwin County who have never been claimed by family after they died.

This man is part of an even more exclusive group: not only unclaimed in death, but authorities have no idea who they are.

Until a name is found, Baldwin County Coroner Brian Pierce said a death certificate can't be issued.

If the afterlife has a waiting room, the Seminole man, and those like him, are truly in limbo.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a study in 2004 showed that an average of 413 people die every year unidentified. Most have been male and African American. Nearly 30% died from suspected homicides.

If the Seminole man is returned to Baldwin County's care, he may eventually be buried in a county-owned plot. Currently, six similar unknown souls rest in a Foley cemetery, placed there over the last 50 years.

County resources were used to purchase the plots. County employees prepared the bodies, ferried them to their final resting places and did the best they could to honor them as they ushered them into eternal rest.

The number of dead that the county has become caretaker of has increased over the years. While unidentified remains are not the norm, unclaimed remains are becoming more common.

These individuals die. Their identities are known.

Sometimes they have no living family. Sometimes authorities don't have a next of kin to call. Sometimes the family simply abandons them, refusing to bury or care for the body.

In Alabama, there is no law that requires families to pay for burial or cremation expenses.

That leaves bodies in limbo and makes the Baldwin County Coroner's Office the caretaker of a new soul nearly once a month.

Deep inside the Robertsdale office, nestled between bustling workers, a quiet, locked closet holds 54 urns. These are the cremated remains of 54 unclaimed individuals.

Each has a name. Each has an identity. None have a final resting place.

Alabama law does not require the coroner to keep the remains. After 180 days, legally, the remains can be scattered, placed in a mausoleum or even buried at sea.

Pierce said that policy makes him uncomfortable.

"I just don't feel that is my place to get rid of them," he said.

Plus, sometimes a friend or family member eventually comes knocking.

Earlier this month, Pierce received a call from a man in Florida who had just learned that his high school friend had died – two years ago. The man was unmarried and had no family left to tend to his last wishes.

The friend called the coroner to see if they knew where he was buried. He never was. Instead, he was one of the lost souls, waiting in limbo in the closet.

Pierce gave the friend the ashes. It is a last wish that the coroner can grant on a case-by-case basis.

Some of the 54 urns of ashes in the coroner's closet have been waiting for that last wish since 2015. An additional 85 unclaimed bodies were buried in local cemeteries over the last 50 years.

Baldwin's rising unclaimed population mirrors what is happening nationally.

A Washington Post report in 2021 found that recent estimates show 1% of all deaths in the United States result in an unclaimed body. That means in 2021, when 3.4 million Americans died, there were 34,000 bodies left for the government to bury, the report said.

Pierce said while Baldwin County currently has the ability to store the ashes, many smaller counties don't have the space, the staff or the funds to tend to them.

In Baldwin County, the Council on Aging pays for the cremation of the unclaimed. Once the coroner's office determines it cannot locate a next of kin, a circuit judge signs a request giving permission to cremate the body.

The hope, Pierce said, is to eventually build a mausoleum that the remains could be placed in, visited and retrieved from if family does come searching for them.

But such an extravagance can run upwards of $10,000, and there is a fee each time Pierce's office accesses the inside to add or remove an urn.

"We could build our own mausoleum if we owned the plot, but there is a lot more to it than just that. Death is complicated," Pierce said. "And it's thousands of dollars."

Pierce said even with budgets and staffing far above what rural Alabama counties have, larger counties like Baldwin may also eventually run out of space to store unclaimed bodies if the upward trend continues.

"The rural counties really have a problem with abandonment," he said. "That's an issue that really could eventually affect the whole state."

If the body of the man found in Seminole ever does return to Baldwin County, Pierce said they may find a grave to bury him in if he remains unidentified.

If there is a break in the case and his name is found, he will be cremated and wait with the others in the locked cabinet for family to come forward.

For now, there is nothing more Pierce can do. It's not a topic, he said, that people are quick to take to task.

"It's kind of out of sight, out of mind," Pierce said. "It's not cocktail conversation."