3-26-2007

63-year-old RJ Anheier died in January. He will be laid to rest later this week. For the past three and a half months, his body has mistakenly been housed at OHSU where local medical students have studied his remains. People who knew Anheier prior to his death don't call it a mistake. They call it pure disrespect.

Anheier lived at the Biltmore Hotel on SW 6th but had spent prior stints of his life on the streets. When he died, the state medical examiner did not find any next of kin or contacts to claim his body and he was turned over to the medical school. However, the accounts of exactly WHAT the examiner's office did and what they COULD have done differ greatly.

Dr. Karen Gunson says they followed protocol upon finding the deceased. A four-five day search turned up a distant cousin who was not even positive they were blood relatives. However, Gunson says the one thing they did NOT do in this case was go to the address listed on Anheier's ID. She says Anheier had no keys on his person at the time and they felt the background check had turned up all potential kin.

Turns out Anheier not only had a large community of close friends living at the Biltmore, he also has an out of state sister with whom he had recently reconnected. None of those people were reached.

With no one to claim the body, the State turned over Anheier's remains for study and were compensated $37.50 (a customary practice with unclaimed bodies . . . when such a donation is made, a small sum of money is paid to cover expense ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred depending on the case).

Eventually word reached Anheier's extended group of friends of his death and of the circumstances following his passing. Tthey are stunned by the treatment.

On Monday, about one hundred people crammed into the community room at the Biltmore to remember Anheier. The room only fits about twenty-five comfortably so the standing-room-only crowd spilled out into the hallway and front lobby. It was not a carefully orchestrated scene as many memorials can be. Instead, friends sat around and shared their happiest memories of their fdeparted buddy.

I spoke with Matt Barrett (Anheier's best friend of 25 years) at the memorial. For him, the sadness of losing his buddy is only expanded by the disrespect he perceives was paid by the State. For Barrett, the state saw his friend as homeless and indigent and, therefore, could be cast off to the gutter. He still wants to know why no one came to Anheier's home before turning him over to the medical school.

But the mood of the memorial seemed more of forgiveness. Friends said that wherever Anheier is now, he's moved past the apparent slight surrounding his passing. His body has been returned by the medical school who say they had no idea about the circumstances.

RJ Anheier will be buried on Friday.