Lost in the Morgue

TRENTON -- City police acknowledged ... that missteps in paperwork caused the body of a woman to remain unidentified at the Mercer County morgue since 1999, even though detectives believed they knew who she was seven years ago.
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This gross neglect of a human being, destined to languish in a morgue for nine years, is tragic. And while there have been discussion regarding the neglect from the morgue supervisors, the police department, and the medical examiner, i don't understand how for nine years, day after day, the morgue would operate, and no one noticed that the same space never became vacant?

I'm all for investigations into the bureaucratic failures that took place. But the reality is controlled not by bureaucrats but by the rank and file employees. They need to examine their job performance. Are they so detached from what they do that they fail to notice someone for nine years?

Or maybe it isn't their fault. Is it common for neglect to occur? What's the average time a body takes residence in a morgue? If a person remains unclaimed, where are they moved to? Under whose auspices? What care is given for religion? Do morgues employ Chaplains? These questions need to be answered, and if unsatisfactory, they need to be addressed and solutions found. Until then, what protections exist for a person arriving at the morgue today to ensure that they won't be left to depart for another nine years?