Fresno County seeks relatives of 94-year-old man for burial

Fresno County authorities are trying to locate relatives of Marshall Salinas, a 94-year-old man who died at a local nursing home, because the Coroner’s Unit cannot release his body until immediate family is found for burial.

The Fresno County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office said it searched numerous personal records but has not been able to identify or contact Salinas’ family. The office is asking anyone with information to contact the Coroner’s Unit at (559) 600-3400 or coroner@fresnosheriff.org.

The case shows how much of the coroner’s work happens after the death itself. Under California Government Code §27491, the Fresno County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office investigates qualifying deaths, identifies the deceased, notifies next of kin and works to determine the cause, circumstances and manner of sudden or unexplained deaths in its jurisdiction.

Salinas is listed in NamUs, the national centralized repository for missing, unidentified and unclaimed person cases, as unclaimed person case UCP156302. NamUs says the body was found on Feb. 24, 2026, and the case was created May 7, 2026. Its latest April 2026 statistics show 23,042 open unclaimed-person cases nationwide, a reminder that Salinas’ case is part of a larger system of unresolved deaths across the country.

The county’s coroner records process adds another layer of delay and cost. Fresno County says coroner reports generally take at least 8 weeks to complete, and copies currently cost $84.55. For families already hard to locate, that means the administrative burden can stretch long after the death, while the body remains unreleased.

In Fresno County, where a death in a nursing home can still end with no family stepping forward, the Salinas case exposes the fragile handoff between private loss and public responsibility. Until relatives are found, the county’s work remains unfinished and Salinas’ burial cannot move ahead.