What happens if someone dies...

[dolo amber]

and they don't have any phone numbers, email addresses, etc. of their next of kin whereby authorities can contact them?

[Don_G]

1. Locally

The coroner asks the state newspapers to run an item asking for information about the individual.

[musiclawyer]

2. In most counties

the Public Administrator will be given the estate to be probated in case kin cannot be found (which usually means there is no will). Normally, the estate, less administrator fees, attorneys fees, and other debts paid, will get escheated to the State after a period of timer elapses unless kin are discovered for distribution of residue.

[dolo amber]

4. The person I'm concerned about

is most assuredly destitute, and not local. I guess the best thing is just to check the online obits and hope to not see the name.

[VelmaD]

3. Uh...is there something...

you'd like to tell us about short bus? ;-)

[Padraig18]

5. In Illinois:

If the person dies w/o medical care, the coroner investigates and causes the body to be 'decently buried'; the coroner inventories the personal effects, money, etc., and causes them to be deposited with the Co. Treasurer (minus funeral expenses) to be held for 10 years, at which point they are placed in the custody of the state.

If the person died with medical care, either the public administrator sees to the funeral arrangements or, if any friends wish to come forward and claim the body, they are allowed to do so; the public administrator opens an estate in probate court, inventories the assets and, after deducting his/her fee and fuineral expenses, the remainder (if any) is deposited with the Co. Treasurer, as above.

I don't know about your state specifically, but common law (which most states follow re: deceased persons) favors a person's friends, rather than the state, regarding funeral arrangements.