There is no requirement for local governments — who are responsible for unclaimed bodies — to report them to any national authority, so there is no official count. But tens of thousands of lives in the United States end this way each year, according to a Washington Post investigation that included more than 100 interviews over six months with medical examiners and local officials from Maine to California.

A striking number — thousands every year — served in the military, especially during the Vietnam War, according to funeral directors who directly handle their bodies.

“Vietnam vets got the rawest deal of anyone,” said Jim Mowrer, an Iraq War veteran who never met Ryan but volunteered to carry his urn at his Iowa funeral in June. “We have a lot of making up to do to Vietnam vets.”…

“They’re estranged from their family. They die alone. They commit suicide,” said Linda Smith of the Missing in America Project, which helps arrange funerals for unclaimed veterans. “They don’t have anyone to mourn them — that’s what we do. The number is huge. It’s really sad.”