11 corpses found in a funeral home add to the horrors of the industry

On Friday, the poorly decomposed bodies of 11 children were found in the ceiling of the former Cantrell funeral home on the east side of Detroit, police said. State investigators had received an anonymous letter explaining how to trace the bodies.

Police Lieutenant Brian Bowser of the Detroit Police Department was not able to say how long the remains were stored there or how old they were. But he said that he was upset "by the harshness" of anyone who had placed the remains of babies, some of them apparently stillborn, in a cardboard box concealed in the lowering ceiling of the chair. a stairwell.

More: Police: 11 corpses found in the ceiling of the old funeral home

Other incidents have provoked many warnings from local associations and consumer groups warned about schemes, scams – and giving advice to loved ones and long-time Americans who plan their deaths to protect themselves.

"The typical funeral of these days cost nearly $ 8,000," warned AARP, an advocacy group of older Americans, in a previous bulletin. "It's often family members who are emotionally planned, who are not sure of the costs and who are in a hurry to fix the problem, which is a recipe for exploitation."

One of the worst industry cases may have been recorded in 2002, when national attention was focused on the Crematory of Tri-State Crematory, located in Noble, Georgia, where more than 300 bodies were to be cremated but left to decomposition on the property of sheds, in pits and stacked in vaults.

Director, Ray Brent March, was prosecuted and prosecuted later. The family and funeral directors who had contracted with the crematorium felt betrayed – and horrified. Initially, police said, Marsh had told them that the incinerator was broken. The indictment against Marsh reported 787 counts, punishable by several thousand years in prison. He pleaded guilty to theft, fraud, misrepresentation and misuse of a corpse.

TO CLOSE

In Detroit, macabre discovery in a former funeral home when the police found the bodies of 11 babies. Nathan Rousseau Smith has history.
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The Friday incident comes on the heels of others in Michigan.

In January, another Detroit funeral home, Barksdale, was closed after inspectors found unsanitary conditions, including blood-stained equipment and cremated remains infested with rats, according to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulation.

In March, a Petoskey funeral home was closed after the discovery of a rusty machete on a counter in the embalming room. Incinerated human remains were stored next to those of a dog and a pig. the news.

In 2017, the state closed the funeral home of Jarzembowski for improperly handling nearly $ 200,000 in 43 funeral service contracts paid in advance.

And in 2016, Flint's Swanson Funeral Home was subject to disciplinary action after a state inspector discovered rotting bodies in the funeral home's garage. The funeral home, at the time, offered cremations at a reduced price.

The complaints were filed with the National Office of Death Sciences.

"The place just breathed to death. It smelled like decomposition, "said Darrin Vickers, then director of Springport Funeral Home, who went home to recover a corpse, said in a news article. "I am a farmer and a funeral director. I am used to bad smells. This place was disgusting. "

Mr. O. Neil Swanson III was charged with 10 counts of conversion of funeral contracts in June by the state attorney general. He was accused of having offered prepaid funeral services contracts that he was not legally allowed to offer in a funeral home.

And in 2005, three men posing as funeral directors stole a body at Providence Hospital in Southfield, police said. The authorities added that the unusual theft was probably part of a scheme to defraud an insurance company.

Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

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