Authorities are searching for family members of five people who have died in Jefferson County over the past month.

Their bodies are ready to be released for burial, but the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has not been able to locate their family members.

Jean Wilson, a 74-year-old white female, was found dead Feb. 2. A friend found Wilson unresponsive inside her home in the 8200 block of Third Avenue North.

The discovery was made at 1:56 p.m. and Wilson was pronounced dead a short time later.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said there was no evidence of trauma or foul play.

It appears, he said, that Wilson previously lived in Texas and moved to Birmingham about nine months ago.

Shari L. Hitman, 37-year-old white female, was found unresponsive inside a convenience store bathroom at 11:20 a.m. Feb. 21 in the 2000 block of Green Springs Highway.

The cause of her death is pending, but Yates said there was no sign of trauma or foul play.

Authorities do not have an address for Hitman but said she could possibly be from Virginia and have family who once lived in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

David Nelson Brown, a 77-year-old white male, was found dead March 1 in the 1100 block of 52nd Street South.

Yates said Brown was discovered dead about 11:04 a.m. by Birmingham police who were asked by a concern neighbor to perform a welfare check.

Brown died of natural causes. All attempts to identify and locate family have failed.

Dylan Thomas Merck, 37, died March 3 at Princeton Baptist Medical Center. He was taken to the hospital after he was found unresponsive under a bridge at 19th Street and Second Avenue North.

The cause of his death is pending, but Yates said there was no sign of trauma or foul play.

Merck’s mother, Janice Merck, died in Plains, Georgia in 2018.  In 2018, his father, Bryan Merk, was known to be living in a nursing home, also in Plains, but he is no longer a resident of that nursing home.

Joyce A. Williams, a 70-year-old Black female, died Feb. 26 at UAB Hospital. She had been taken to the hospital from North Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation.

She lived in Florida when she was 16, but Yates said they have no other information about her previous addresses.

Family members are asked to call the coroner’s office at 205-930-3603.