David Buckingham died alone in his Mulberry Street apartment sometime over the past two months.

And it appears he will be buried without mourners at his graveside.


Dr. Gary Kirchner, county coroner, said no relatives have been found to claim the remains of the 53-year-old man whose body was found in a mummified state Nov. 25.


An autopsy last week showed no foul play, the coroner said.


"We've been trying to locate family. His body needs to be buried," Kirchner said.


Neighbors in the 200 block of North Mulberry Street said Saturday they had seen the man who lived on the third floor of an apartment building, but did not know him.


Neighbors gathered early last week to discuss the body the police and coroner took away Nov. 25, one neighbor said Saturday.


None of the neighbors that gathered knew the man that had lived on their block for six months, she said.


One neighbor, Ernest Dickerson, said last week, that he and Buckingham were friends and would sit and drink beer together on his front porch at 237.


"He was a very friendly guy. He had just gotten out of the hospital so I would help him out."


Dickerson said he didn't know much about Buckingham's life other than he was a veteran. "The Marines, I think," he said.


Dickerson hadn't checked on his friend recently because he thought he was back in the hospital.


A spokesman at the Coatesville Veterans Administration Medical Center said Buckingham had been a patient there, but not since 1998.


A Lebanon VA Medical Center spokesman said Buckingham had been a patient there, too, but not in the past year.


Owners of the apartment house did not know Buckingham either. Cathy Martin said this week that she and her husband, Leroy, use American Heritage Property Management to rent the apartments.


Karen Stutler, the Martin's rental agent at American Heritage was unavailable Friday.


Buckingham's was the second mummified body found in the city in a little over a month.


Oct. 21, Suie Bear, 90, who lived with her son, Gale, 55, in the 900 block of Union Street, was found in a decomposed state under a blanket on her bedroom floor after a family friend went to check on Gale after a "planned contact" was missed.


The friend called 911 and police and the coroner arrived only to find Gale Bear emaciated and his mother decomposed.


Kirchner said Buckingham will be buried at Mellinger's Mennonite Cemetery, 1918 Lincoln Highway East, this week.


"Chuck McWilliams [Young Funeral Home] will give us a box and we will bury him," he said, adding there will be no funeral service.


"We have small grave markers, I think, but he will be registered with the cemetery."


Kirchner, who was struck by the sadness of Buckingham's lonely death, said, "These things shouldn't happen. We need funds to prevent this."


The coroner is hoping to one day provide all folks living alone with a device whereby they would push a button once a day to notify a center that they are all right.


"Most of these would be older people who can tend to forget," he said. "So if there is no call, someone would call them. If there was no answer, the police could be called to check on them."


Kirchner said the system would not be the perfect answer, but, "It's better than them dying alone."


He is hoping to work with Health Data Link, Select Security and the Office of Aging to establish such a system, he said.


Jacqueline Burch, executive director of the Lancaster County Office of Aging, said there is a telephone insurance program where clients are called once a day. But there is a cost.


People can also get bracelets or necklaces that serve as personal emergency systems. These devices, which will call emergency personnel when a button is pushed, are also costly, she said.


"People have to request the services," she said. "We only serve about 10 percent of the elderly population here. Many people don't feel they need us."


Buckingham, who was not elderly, could have requested help from the agency, but didn't. "This is a very difficult thing because people value their privacy," Burch said.


"We always encourage people to check on neighbors they know are elderly or alone," she said.