After two weeks of searching for family members of a McComb man found dead in his home, Pike County Coroner Percy Pittman said a family member of Charles Markase has been located.
On Feb. 16, McComb police officers found Markase’s body in his home at 404 Missouri Ave. around 4:30 p.m.
A mail carrier alerted authorities after his newspapers and mail had not been picked up for days.
It’s believed that Markase, by that time, had been dead for three weeks. He had moved to McComb after Hurricane Katrina.
Pittman said a story about local officials looking for relatives of Markase ended up in the New Orleans Advocate and the wife of Markase’s nephew contacted him.
Pittman said the nephew recently had open heart surgery, and she was unable to respond sooner.
Pittman said without the public’s help in finding Markase’s family, it could have taken longer.
Pittman said it’s not unusual for people to die alone, leaving local officials looking for survivors to claim their bodies.
He said he has had cases where it took longer before a person was claimed by family.
Pittman said for those who aren’t claimed they are buried by the county in a pauper’s funeral.
“It takes a long time because people don’t read the paper and they don’t have Facebook,” he said. “I thought it would have taken longer than that.”
He said he sent a DNA sample to Jackson and is waiting on the results from the test to see if he can release the body to the niece.
“I want to thank everyone for helping to locate the family members,” he said.
