It’s law in Virginia that if a body remains unclaimed by next of kin after an investigation it automatically gets offered up to science. If academia denies it, then the case lands in court, where they order the remains to be cremated. Then, according to sources close to Daily Press out of Newport News, a designated funeral home then “holds [the] ashes for disposal.”

After United States Army veteran Eldridge Byrd passed away in Suffolk at the impressive age of 92 in June, the fate of his remains nearly landed into this unfortunate predicament: a lonely interment.

But then a caring and dutiful member of the Newport News Sheriff’s Office, Captain Shonda Whitfield, took action and found someone who knew Byrd — U.S. Army and U.S. Navy veteran Patrick Biron.

Turns out the men met at a nursing home in 2003 and remained friends until Byrd’s passing.

The law enforcement officer also discovered that the late vet served as a soldier from 1945 to 1946. This, thankfully, was enough to give him the earned honors of being buried as a serviceman.

Which he was. At Albert G. Horton Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk.

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Biron and his loved ones were there to pay tribute to a man who’d spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. He’d hung out during football season and even had Biron sneak an occasional hotdog with mustard and onions to him at the nursing home.

“I just felt I had to be here to honor his service. He was my friend,” Biron said.

Byrd’s body was considered unclaimed in death, but he was honored by several people who came out for his memorial service.

Erika Bradley read about Byrd’s committal service online about an hour before it was set to start. The Navy wife put her 4-year-old daughter in a patriotic sundress and headed to the veterans cemetery.

“I felt like I had to come out and pay my respects,” the Suffolk resident said. Bradley added she was proud to bring Grace to the remembrance of a service member.

Whitfield teared up during the memorial. Finding someone to claim a person from one of her investigations is a win, and it makes up for times a person’s body remains unclaimed, she said.

The burial ground has laid to rest more than 9,000 veterans on its grounds. It’s one of the many across the country that’s maintained and dignified by the state it’s in.