Time to bury the past

     Revisiting one of the city’s more sordid chapters, a Denver television station recently dug up yet another story on former funeral home owner and Fort Lupton Mayor Jim Bostick.
    Disgraced and forced to resign in 2006 over terrible publicity from a scandal involving the burial of U.S. Marine Jason Sepulveda, Bostick catapulted Fort Lupton into the national spotlight after failing to release the dead Marine’s savings account to his family, who then went public with the story. Despite receiving full payment for Sepulveda’s funeral from the military, his family found themselves forced to take Bostick to court for damages, resulting in a $7,500 judgment against Bostick.
    The ensuing brouhaha made Bostick, for a time, one of the most reviled characters (after Jane Fonda) on veterans’ websites across the country and a shoo-in as the city’s most infamous resident of the 20th century. Citing health reasons, media attention and death threats, Bostick resigned as mayor less than a month after the scandal broke. Shortly thereafter, Bostick skipped town, perhaps his best move in years, disappearing from the spotlight and leaving behind a trail of unpaid debts and unfinished business.
    Now it appears that Bostick’s legacy is revisited yet again on Fort Lupton, bouncing around the blogosphere as reports of nine sets of abandoned remains surface, cremated, then left behind by Bostick in the funeral home’s garage. More hurt families, more lost money, and a new owner for the funeral home left holding the bag. Worst of all, six sets of those remains lie unidentified except in name, with no one to claim or care for them, a tragedy now going on a decade in some cases.
    Enough is enough. Though the city isn’t responsible for Bostick’s mishandling of the deceased, the fact remains that in death these people are without advocates. The city should step up, both as a matter of ethics and civic pride, and find a final resting place for the six within Hillside Cemetery. The cemetery committee, long a bastion for heated arguments over the size and type of decorations allowed on headstones, should make this a priority. It’s the right thing to do.

Contact Staff Writer Gene Sears at gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com