Hart Island is the lonely strip of land in Long Island Sound where the bodies of New York City's unclaimed dead lie in mass graves.

The city doesn't allow the public to visit, and keeps the records about those buried sealed. But a new investigation by The New York Times sheds light on some of the lives led by people who ended up there, and reveals that the path there often came after predatory or careless behavior by the institutions charged with end-of-life care.

Investigative reporter Nina Bernstein wrote the story. She told WNYC she was surprised to find the island held not only the city's homeless and indigent, but people from all walks of life.

"People that had loving families, a burial fund set aside, a plot, a court-appointed guardian," she said. "And none of these were protection against ending up in a mass grave in New York City's potter's field."