No notice shall be given, nor shall any such body or bodies be delivered, if any person shall satisfy the authorities in charge of said body or bodies that he or she is of any degree of kin or is related by marriage to, or socially or otherwise connected with and interested in, the deceased and shall claim the said body or bodies for burial. In that event, it or they shall be at once surrendered to such person for interment or shall be buried at public expense at the request of such claimant, if a relative by blood or a connection by marriage, provided he or she is financially unable to supply such body or bodies with burial. Such notice shall not be given, or such body be delivered, if the deceased person was a traveler who died suddenly, in which case the dead body shall be buried.
Ala. Code § 22-19-23 (1975)