beautiful urns of sculpted bronze or brass, finely crafted mahogany or marble, Tom Demuth held a white cardboard box that was about 12 inches wide and four inches deep.

Demuth opened the box to reveal a folded plastic bag in which the cremated remains of a loved one would be placed and held at Demuth Funeral Home until claimed by family members.

Sometimes, Demuth said, those family members never return to the Oklahoma City funeral home to claim the cremated remains.

"It's very common," Demuth said. "A part of that may be they can't deal with it. Some people don't care if they pick it up or not. They just decide to leave them here, and they don't have to deal with it."

Demuth estimates that about 5 percent of the remains from cremations done at his funeral home are left behind.

Oklahoma law, which was updated in 2003 to deal with the cremation issue, said Terry McEnany, executive director of the Oklahoma Funeral Board. The revised law states that funeral homes may dispose of the remains after 60 days if they remain unclaimed.

Until the mid-1960s, there was only one crematory located between Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa. Vondel Smith Mortuary built the first in Oklahoma City, McEnany said.

Demuth's crematory was built in 1989 at its Britton Road location. The funeral home created the Cremation Society of Oklahoma in 1984, and offers memberships for a $15 per person one-time fee. The company charges society members $950 for cremation services. Families of those who are not members are charged $1,050.

"Most of them run between $1,000 and $2,000," McEnany said of cremation charges throughout Oklahoma.

The process takes 2 to 2½ hours, Demuth said. No casket is needed.

At Demuth Funeral Home, family members can buy an urn in which to place the remains -- never call them "ashes," Tom Demuth said -- that range in price from $12 for a black plastic box to almost $500 for a beautifully engraved bronze model.

Or family members can choose not to buy any urn, in which case Demuth will place the remains in the white cardboard box and hold it until it is claimed.

Demuth will store remains for one year before scattering them over the ground at a local cemetery.

That meets the state's requirement of disposing of remains in a "dignified and humane manner," McEnany said. There are no health hazards associated with cremated remains, he said.