Unclaimed remains: The fate of Jeff Butya’s ashes

(For the latest developments, see this follow-up story posted Sunday, July 20, 2025.)

The passing of Jeffrey Butya earlier this year unleashed an outpouring of shared memories from those who crossed paths with him from his work at a couple of local eating and drinking establishments as well as some of his other unique life endeavors.

His passing on Feb. 7 also triggered a series of unanswered calls that have left Butya’s remains in a literal state of limbo.

According to Mya Garrett, a funeral director at Thomas-Little Funeral Service Inc. and Crematory, none of Butya’s known family members have responded to requests to cover his cremation costs nor have they come to claim the one-time Penn State football walk-on’s remains.

So Butya’s ashes remain in an urn at Thomas-Little’s Oakdale facility.

Butya, who grew up in Robinson Township and was a Montour High School graduate, was well known to many for his affiliation with Butya’s Tavern, a longtime establishment off Route 60 that he operated with his brother Ken from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s. When Ken and his wife, Cassie, opened All Star Sports Bar & Grill in 2008, Jeff came along and rarely left the place.

That all came to an end late last year when Jeff Butya suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on the right side. He died Feb. 7, 2025, from complications associated with that stroke.

Garrett said a Butya family member contacted her funeral home, which is owned by her father, Patrick Konieczny, from the hospital where Butya had died, and the family gave her permission to send people out to retrieve the body.

Garrett said she met with Butya’s brother, Brian, on Feb. 8 to discuss arrangements. Originally, they had considered a full burial, but ultimately Garrett said the family decided on a direct cremation with no viewing. Garrett said the cremation was completed and death certificates prepared, and the next step was for the family to pay for the services, which amounted to $3,285, and retrieve the remains.

That has yet to happen.

Garrett said she expected the family to pay for the cremation on Feb. 8, but that she didn’t press the issue when she met with Brian Butya. “I was being kind that day,” she said. “Brian said he had to sell a couple of things, and I told him I’d call him on that Friday.”

Garrett said Brian Butya told her he wasn’t feeling well on Friday and asked to meet the following Monday. “That’s when he stopped answering my phone calls,” Garrett said.

Garrett said she called Brian Butya on a weekly basis for months but was unable to reach him and he did not return her calls.

Garrett said she also reached out to Cassie Butya, who was married to Jeff’s brother, Ken, before he died in 2017, but wasn’t able to connect by phone.

Cassie Butya, who owns All Star Sports Bar & Grill, did respond to the funeral home via email in late April.

Cassie Butya told the funeral home that she understood the sensitive nature of the situation and while she had the “utmost respect for Jeff and sympathize with the situation, funeral expenses are typically a personal responsibility and not one assumed by the employer. As such, we are not in a position to cover the outstanding balance.”

Cassie Butya characterized the situation as “complex and delicate” and said that Jeff Butya did not have any life insurance, a living will or power of attorney.

Efforts to contact Cassie Butya by phone were unsuccessful, but she did respond to the West Hills Gazette’s request for comment via email last month. She acknowledged the situation was a “delicate one” and noted that while she was once connected to the Butya family through her late husband, she is now remarried and was not involved in any part of the funeral planning or decisions.

The Gazette’s efforts to reach Brian Butya by phone also were unsuccessful – as of Saturday, July 19, his voice mailbox was full and could not take additional messages. Garrett said she has continued calling Brian Butya periodically since she stopped calling on a weekly basis, with the last call made in June.

Garrett said she also tried to call Jeff Butya’s father, George, who lives in a community care facility, but was unable to reach him. George Butya said by phone he was not involved in any of the discussions surrounding his son’s cremation, but when told that no one had retrieved Jeff Butya’s remains, he said, “That doesn’t sound right to me.”

Garrett said this is only the third time in the 30 years that her father has owned the funeral home that someone has failed to retrieve a family member’s cremated remains or pay for a cremation.

“Usually families will make some attempt to pay, even if they have to make payments,” she said.

Garrett said the previous two times that someone failed to claim a person’s remains from her funeral home, the person’s cremated remains were buried in a local cemetery with unclaimed ashes from other funeral homes. That’s likely to be the destination for Jeff Butya’s remains if someone doesn’t come forth to claim them by the end of the year, Garrett said.

Garrett said her funeral home used the Oakdale Cemetery the last time a similar situation occurred and she expects that will end up being Jeff Butya’s final resting place.

Adam Shaffer, a funeral director and executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, said it’s not as unusual as one might think to have remains left unclaimed at funeral homes. He said in Westmoreland County, one of the cemeteries conducts an annual burial of unclaimed cremated remains.

Shaffer said the cemetery opens the vault that houses cremated remains and members of the Westmoreland, Indiana and Armstrong Counties Funeral Directors Association can use that receptacle for unclaimed cremated remains.

Matt Heckel, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said Pennsylvania law does not require funeral homes to retain cremated remains for a specific length of time.

“While some states impose a mandatory holding period, no such requirement exists in Pennsylvania law or regulation,” Heckel said in an email. “Past legislative proposals have considered establishing a retention timeframe, but no such provision has been enacted.”

As a result, Heckel said, funeral homes typically rely on internal policies and the terms of their cremation authorization forms to determine how long remains will be held.

Shaffer said it’s important for funeral homes to document all the attempts made to contact family or whoever made the funeral arrangements and that the final attempt should be by certified letter. He said if no response is received within a reasonable length of time, the remains can be disposed of in what he called a “dignified burial.”

He said a month or 90 days is a reasonable amount of time.

For Garrett, it’s been well beyond 90 days. She said she started a GoFundMe page on April 2 —nearly two months after Butya’s death  — donations to cover Jeff Butya’s funeral costs, but as of now, she hasn’t received any.

Garrett said she was surprised, but then again not. “I didn’t want to post it everywhere because that’s not something I’m comfortable with,” she said. “And it’s never been about the money. It’s just about getting him to where he needs to go.

“I just feel bad for the guy. He’s just sitting in the funeral home with us. We’ve never gotten him to his family. And that’s sad.”