Funeral home horror stories have emerged in an industry riddled with accidents across the country.
For forty years until this May, of colorado Funeral directors did not require a license to operate, and faced minimal oversight. Bill Booker, owner of Roller Funeral Homes and member of the Arkansas State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, told Fox News Digital that a series of horror stories emerging from the state were “about to happen.”
But even in states with strict regulations, cases of gross malpractice and mismanagement remain, traumatizing already grieving families and sparking public outrage.
“I would reassure the public that there are plenty of safety measures in place, and these incidents cannot continue for very long outside the state of Colorado,” Booker said. I “I think most funeral professionals believe in a sacred trust between their clients and themselves and really desire to be in this profession.”
Yet, when funeral home mismanagement makes the news, those in the profession are shaken.
“A lot of the work in the funeral profession is done when no one else is present – no one except the funeral director and the deceased,” Booker said. “People should have proper education as well as proper heart to serve the public in such difficult times.”
1. Hundreds of bodies left to rot by Colorado funeral directors who misused COVID relief funds to fund vacations and lavish lifestyles
In April, nearly 200 decayed, insect-infested bodies were found abandoned in a building by John and Carrie Halford, owners of Colorado Springs’ Back to Nature Funeral Home. Fox News Digital first reported,
The couple was charged with five counts of abuse of a dead body, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and more than 50 counts of forgery.
Instead of the ashes of his dead relatives, Halford allegedly presented dry concrete to the families and on two occasions buried the wrong body. In total, he collected $130,000 from bereaved families for cremation and burial services, which he never completed. In court, an FBI agent testified that this money was enough to cover the cost of cremation of all the bodies released twice.
Mugshots of John Holford, left, and Carrie Holford, right, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office via AP, file)
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Based on text messages exchanged by the couple, the accumulation of bodies began four years before the gruesome discovery. In their messages, the couple had discussed dumping the bodies in a hole, then treating them with lye or setting them on fire.
The subsequent indictment claimed that Halford used $882,300 in COVID pandemic relief funds to buy a car, dinners, cryptocurrency, his child’s tuition and several vacations.
Booker told Fox News Digital, “In Colorado, it’s just a matter of time that someone who was not regulated, who was not licensed, who had no government oversight, they eventually lose their sense of right and wrong, and The consequences are dire.”
Halfords was ordered in August to pay more than $1 million to the families of the dead, CNN reported,
2. Former Colorado funeral director arrested for storing cremated remains, woman’s body in hearse for two years
This February, two years after the mortuary went out of business, a funeral director was found with the cremated remains of 30 people in his rented home.
Police made the shocking revelation on February 6 during a court-ordered eviction of 33-year-old Miles Harford from his Denver home. Fox News Digital first reported,
Harford also kept the remains of a dead woman inside a hearse for two years. He admitted to the police that he owed money to several crematoriums in the area and that no one would cremate the woman’s body, so he decided to keep it in the hearse. colorado sun Informed.
Seen here is the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, where piles of human remains were found, and the floor was covered in bodily fluids several inches deep, an FBI agent testified. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
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His business, Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, was closed through September 2022.
Booker said that “greed” or “lack of moral compass” may have motivated Harford.
Booker said, “Maybe (he) didn’t intend for it to be a pattern. But when you go down that road once and no one figures it out, you can do it over and over again.”
A warrant issued for Harford’s arrest at the time listed possible charges of abuse of a corpse, forgery of a death certificate, and theft of money paid for cremations.
3. Long Island sisters sued a funeral home for $60 million after the wrong person was buried in their father’s plot wearing his favorite T-shirt.
Stassie Holzman and Meghan Jenner claim a South Carolina funeral home accidentally shipped the wrong person’s remains to New York for burial when their father died out of state, and New York funeral directors insist Giving evidence that it was the correct corpse, even though the women had not done so. Identify the man in the coffin.
Long Island sisters sued Fletcher Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Fountain Inn, S.C., and Star of David Memorial Chapel in West Babylon, New York, for $60 million in damages following an interment dispute last February.
When the women asked to see their father for the last time, they suspected something was wrong. Although the man was wearing his favorite Led Zeppelin shirt, his face was not looking quite right.
Photo of an empty mortuary in a crematorium. (Fox News)
FBI agent says piles of bodies, fluids and flies found at Colorado funeral home
“Where’s his facial hair?” Stacey Holzman asked the funeral home CBS News“The funeral director said it’s standard practice that we shave everyone.”
The man also had an autopsy mark on his forehead, but the women had requested that their father be buried according to Jewish tradition, which does not permit autopsies.
“Again, funeral directors are dismissive of it, saying, ‘Oh, if someone dies in a hospital that’s standard,’ and I say, ‘No, that’s not right, I don’t recognize him,’ ‘” Holzman told the outlet.
Weeks later, a South Carolina funeral home confirmed the women’s suspicions. In the lawsuit, they claim her body was “left” inside the morgue “without dignity or respect.” The bereaved daughters later buried their father without his favorite clothes.
The Star of David said in a statement that the family “confirmed the identity of the deceased at the cemetery” before the burial. Fox News Digital first reportedAfter being informed of the mistake by Fletcher, Star of David said that “quick and decisive action was taken to contact the family and provide the necessary services to alleviate their suffering”.
Star of David said, “We are deeply sorry for any grief experienced by the family due to the mistake made by a funeral home in South Carolina,” adding, “Families are very saddened when they identify their deceased.” Are under stress.”
Booker said he “never saw” any type of disturbance to the body during his 44 years in the funeral profession.
He said, “I don’t know what all the background information is, but I would like to hope that the people who passed away had long-term illnesses and may not have looked like themselves that often.” “A mistake can happen in a health care setting where the wrong identity is recorded on the deceased person… Two people died at almost the same time, there is a mistake in identity between the deceased, and you have two funerals. “There are houses that are affected by this.”
4. A woman 20 years younger is buried instead of a nearly 93-year-old woman at a New Jersey funeral home
The family of Kyung Ja Kim, who died on November 10, 2021, is demanding a $50 million settlement from two funeral homes, a funeral director and a cremator after they almost buried the wrong woman in her mother’s place Had gone.
The woman’s daughter Kummi Kim told NorthJersey.com Her family thought that embalming techniques had become so good that it made their dead mother look much younger.
The family’s attorney told the outlet that Kyung Jae Kim wore dentures and the other woman had a full set of teeth on her body. The dentures were later found under the coffin pillow.
A man places a rose on the grave of a soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery, on Memorial Day, in honor of those who died while serving in the armed forces in Virginia, United States, on May 29, 2023 Held annually. , (Celal Gans/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Grieving family members, many of whom had come from Korea, began throwing shovelfuls of soil onto the woman’s coffin during the burial. The family realized something was wrong when funeral director Hemin Gina Chong tried to quickly disperse the mourners.
Chong allegedly showed Kummi Kim a photo of a 93-year-old woman and asked if it was her mother. When Kummy Kim responded in the affirmative, Chong allegedly instructed the cemetery to take the casket out of the grave and return it to the funeral home, shocking friends and family.
5. Texas funeral home sued for allegedly letting bodies “literally rot” during Winter Storm Uri in 2021
Julieta Guerra sued Integrity Funeral Home in south Houston last February, claiming that the body of her son Edward Silva had not been embalmed for four days.
Fox News Digital first reported Silva died unexpectedly on February 9, 2021. According to Guerra’s lawsuit, funeral home director Hilda Rojas assured the woman that her son’s body would be taken by February 12 and “they would make it look like it was real.”
Guerra was reportedly told on February 12 that her son’s body was not yet ready, then when she called the next day.
Winter Storm Uri made landfall in Houston on February 14. Guerra and her husband drove to the funeral home when they were unable to contact him by phone. The door was closed, and the grieving parents noticed that there was no generator as they walked around the building.
Guerra arrived at the funeral home on February 22 with a beautician to do Silva’s hair and makeup. The lawsuit said he was “severely disfigured” and smelled so strongly that the beautician told Guerra’s sister not to let her see her son. The director of the funeral home reportedly did not inform any of the family members about the condition of the body in advance.
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funeral suit he brought the family According to the lawsuit, Silva also would not be fit due to “extreme post-mortem swelling.” Eventually the clothes had to be cut and draped over her body to be able to wear them.
The family was forced to hold the funeral in a closed coffin, with many of the more than 100 mourners being “disgusted” by the smell.
Omar Khawaja, the family’s attorney, said, “No family should have to endure the disrespect to their loved one’s body like the Guerra family has.” “We intend to hold Integrity Funeral Home at Forest Lawn Cemetery “Accountable for their despicable conduct.”
