Mass Suicide at Jonestown: 30 Years Later

Grim Task
The dispensation of so many bodies presented the State Department with a difficult problem. Issues like deciding whether to perform autopsies on all the victims and finding a mortuary prepared to handle the large volume of bodies delayed the repatriation efforts for many months. In the photo above, workers in Dover, Del., the city chosen as the first stop on U.S. soil, move some of the Jonestown coffins onto a truck after their arrival from Guyana in April 1979.

• Read an interview with author and Jonestown survivor, Tim Reiterman