Pamela Cadiente is saddened when she thinks about the 42 people who have died on O'ahu over the past four years and whose bodies remain unclaimed because officials have been unable to locate next of kin.

Cadiente is the acting chief investigator with the city Department of the Medical Examiner, and one of her duties is to locate family members of people brought to her office. Most of the time relatives are easy to find, but in some cases, the deceased has left no trace of a past and finding next of kin can be an act in futility.

"I can't imagine what it would be like if my son had died and I had no idea," Cadiente said. "It's easy to lose yourself. If you move to another state and don't tell anybody anything about yourself or your family, they don't know where to start looking."

Since 2005, Cadiente has been compiling a list of people who were examined by her office, but were not claimed by family. The medical examiner was able to identify these people, but could not find family.

When all avenues are exhausted, the bodies are turned over to local mortuaries for cremation. If family members do inquire about a loved one, Cadiente said, they will be directed to the mortuary.

There are 42 names on Cadiente's list and so far no one has stepped forward to claim the remains. Unclaimed remains, she said, is a "national problem" with large cities such as Los Angeles dealing with hundreds each year.

Cadiente said medical examiner and coroner offices typically use four national databases, but sometimes a person doesn't show up on any of them. She said it's important for family members who have lost track of a loved one to place that person's name on as many databases as possible.

Since most people have access to the Internet, she said, family should also post notices of a missing loved one on online sources, such as blogs and social networking sites.

That's how Cadiente located the family of a woman who died this week and was brought to the medical examiner to determine a cause of death and to notify next of kin. The 40-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was found unresponsive at a friend's house and was taken to a hospital, where she died Monday.

The medical examiner was able to tentatively identify her and her name did turn up on the databases. But Cadiente said there were no next of kin linked to the dead woman's name.

Cadiente did not want to add a 43rd name to her list, so she turned to a common search engine for help.

"I Googled her name," Cadiente said.

Her search led her to a woman in New York who writes a gardening blog. But Cadiente said the blog also had a link to a page about a woman who has been missing since 1986.

The blogger wrote that the family was still looking for their loved one and weren't giving up on her. The blog also said the missing woman's family understood if she didn't want to be found, but would like to know if she was OK.

"I made a posting on that blog and was hoping that it was the same individual because the name that she listed and the date of birth were exactly the same," Cadiente said.

Cadiente also used one of her databases to find a phone number for the blogger and called her. Cadiente's efforts were successful, as the blogger turned out to be the dead woman's sister-in-law.

The woman told Cadiente that the family had last seen their loved one when she was 11 years old and lost contact with her 23 years ago after she moved to Hawai'i. Although they lost touch with her, the woman said she was never far from her family's mind.

"That blog was posted in 2007 so they were still looking for her," Cadiente said.

The family's initial reaction was shock when they were told the woman was dead. Cadiente said the woman's brother was having a difficult time accepting the fact that she was gone.

"It was a kind of like one of those bittersweet stories where we found her, but unfortunately she's passed away," Cadiente said.

Cadiente added that her office is planning to list the 42 names on its Web site so people who are looking for a loved one may come across his or her name during a Web search.

"As far as the medical examiner's office and coroner's office go, you just never know where you're going to find the information," she said.

Anyone with information about an unclaimed body should call the medical examiner's office at 768-3090.