Dade County Cemetery

Gabrielle Hall

My grandfather is buried here and I wish I knew his grave marker number. My family didn't even know he was in Miami. Hopefully I will get to make it to Miami one day to be able to pay my respects at this sacred place.

Ariel W.

There is such a sad story attached to this place and also one of hope and love. In April of 2018, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Department named this cemetery after Dr. Bruce A. Hyme who led the MDME for 15 years, which is Florida's largest and busiest medical examiners office. During his career he presided over more than 30,000 autopsies before passing away from cancer in April of 2016. The cemetery is adjacent to Miami-Dade Fire Station #13. The land was purchased by the county for $10 in 1925. Since then it has served as the final resting place for the indigent and unidentified deceased persons of Miami Dade County. Over 40,000 people have their final resting place either here, either buried or as scattered ashes. It is hard to even wrap my mind around 40,000 people who didn't have anyone to claim their bodies. This sadness also weighed heavily on Dr. Hyma and during his tenure as Medical Examiner he worked on a project to beautify the cemetery to give these people a final resting place of dignity and respect. During the dedication of the cemetery Darren Caprara, Director of Operations, for the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Department said of Dr. Bruce Hyma that he "was an inspirational leader and an remarkable forensic pathologist, however he will be best remembered for his compassionate and caring demeanor. It is truly fitting that his name will be forever associated with the County cemetery, a place where thousands without family were given a compassionate and dignified final resting place." The cemetery can be opened for loved ones who may find out later that their person was interred here. Before the beautification project the lot was overgrown with weeds. Now when people come there are wide pathways, shade trees, and benches. It looks very peaceful. If you didn't know it was a cemetery you might think it was just an empty field. If you look closer at the ground there are some stone markers with numbers carved into them. At the back of the cemetery is a Veterans memorial and a fountain with a scatter garden. On the ground is the calcium deposits left from the cremated remains of over 6,000 people that have been sprinkled there since 1994. Volunteers planted flowers and cleaned up the area, dedicating the scatter garden in 2015. Dr. Hyma was present at the dedication before he passed away the next year. I love how compassionate people came together, veterans, volunteers, and members of different agencies so that a neglected area could be turned into a peaceful place where people who did not much dignity in life could at least have it in death.