The situation of John Q. Lott, a veteran who died in Albuquerque and had no next of kin to claim his remains and no money for a burial, isn't unusual.

One fortunate circumstance in his case was that he died in the Veterans Affair Hospital, so staff there knew he was a veteran and there were papers to prove it.

John M. Garcia, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services, said many veterans are indigent and he estimated that thousands in New Mexico are homeless. An estimated 200,000 veterans are homeless across the nation.

"A lot of people end up dying alone," Garcia said. "If they are veterans, we work to identify them and make sure they are buried with honor and dignity."

He said there was a case similar case to Lott's in Las Vegas, N.M.

If a person dies and no one knows who they are, counties end up burying them in a "pauper's grave," Garcia said. "The odds are that there are veterans who have died and had no kin to claim them and were buried in a pauper's grave and no one knew about it."

Garcia said he'd like to get a bill introduced in the state Legislature to make sure that if an indigent who dies is identified as a veteran, the remains are automatically turned over to the Veterans Affairs Office.

Right now, if an indigent dies at the VA Hospital or elsewhere and no one steps forward to claim the remains, the body is turned over to the county.

Bernalillo County has a contract with New Mexico Mortuary. The funeral home holds the remains for a couple of weeks and if there's still no claim, cremates the body, said Liz Hamm, the county's public information director. The ashes are kept for two years in case a relative shows up.

In 2008-2009, that county had 87 cremations — all people no one claimed.

Since July, the unclaimed remains of 30 indigent people have been cremated.

After two years, they are interred at a cemetery for people like them — who in the end had no one to call them their own.

Garcia and other veterans are bothered by the probability some of those are veterans who at least had military family.

Hamm is bothered most by the thought of those who go unidentified and are simply buried without ceremony or names.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.