58 Time November 30/December 7, 2020
he says, his voice resounding inside the cargo hold.
Once von Bujdoss concludes, the laborersemerge from a white and blue bus wearing hazmat
suits, work gloves and protective masks. Some
stay to off-load the truck while others plod into
the trench. The first task is to write the names of
the dead and their corresponding burial numbers
in black chalk on the coffins’ lids and sides. Then
the burial numbers are bored into the wood with a
router to ensure they can be identified as the chalk
fades over time.
Two coffins are removed from the truck andplaced on the front bucket of the skid-steer loader,
then driven into the trench, where workers pull
them off and force them into position, side by side
in stacks of three. They fill the spaces between rows
with shovelfuls of dirt. Correction officers dressed in
crisp navy blue uniforms stand on the trench’s rim,
10 ft. above the hole.
On June 26, more than two months after Torron has
been placed in Plot 401, the same team of workers
stands near the grave, watching a black Grand Car-
avan approach from the end of the deserted gravel
road. Behind it, the dust whips away like smoke.
When the van arrives, funeral director James Dono-
frio steps out, smiling. “Good morning, Captain,” he
says in a Brooklyn accent, offering Thompson paper-
work that shows he’s authorized to take custody of
Torron’s exhumed coffin.
City investigators hadn’t been able to thoroughly
search Torron’s apartment back in April, but they did
happen to discover a birth certificate that showed she
was born at the Jewish Maternity Hospital in Man-
hattan. The Queens County public administrator’s
office knew that was enough proof for Hebrew Free
Burial Association (HFBA), a 132-year-old nonprofit
that offers low-cost and free burial for indigent Jews.
Donofrio, 61, was sent by the association to^
Torron is laid to
rest at Mount
Richmond
Cemetery on
Staten Island, more
than two months
after she died