Detroit police removed 63 fetuses Friday from the Detroit funeral home, while state inspectors had closed the door of the center that is under investigation for allegations of fraud and fraudulent manipulation.

Police raided the Perry funeral home on Trumbull Avenue. Friday afternoon found 36 fetuses in boxes and 27 more fetuses in freezers, said Detroit police chief James Craig.

"I'm stunned," said Craig. "My team is stunned, God help these families."

Michigan's Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Department announced Friday the suspension of the Perry Funeral Home Morgue's scientific licenses and director Gary Deak.

The decision to close the facility came after an inspection Friday that revealed "an imminent threat to the health and safety of the public," LARA spokesman Jason Moon said in a press release. .

The dreadful discovery on Friday is the latest development of an extensive investigation into allegations of irregularities at local funeral homes.

Craig said earlier Friday that law enforcement was planning to set up a task force to investigate the issue, with a particular focus on the inappropriate storage of human remains and fraud.

As part of the investigation, the Detroit police raided another funeral home on Friday: Q A Cantrell funeral home in Eastpointe and a home in Grosse Pointe Woods.

"It's bigger than we could know," Craig said at a press briefing Friday at the 5th district. "These are allegations at this point, but it's very, very disturbing, I've never seen anything like it in 41 years and a half (as a police officer)."

The investigation that began a week ago with Cantrell funeral home in Detroit has expanded this week at Perry Funeral Home.

According to Moon's press release, during Friday's inspection, employees at LARA's Corporate, Securities and Commercial Licensing Bureau discovered:

• Three unrefrigerated boxes containing the remains of about 36 dead fetuses or dead infants, as well as a freezer containing additional corpses. Some of the deceased had dates of death in 2015.
• The funeral home failed to certify and file death certificates for the cadavers of fetuses and infants for which he had been placed in the custody of the competent governmental authority within 72 hours of the death.
• The funeral home has not been successful in obtaining permits for the removal or burial of human bodies prior to burial or disposal.
• Perry "obtained possession or embalmed dead human bodies of fetuses and infants without being specifically ordered or authorized by a relative of the deceased or a person entitled to custody," the statement said.

"We will continue to follow the evidence," added Craig. "It's amazing."

During the search that took place earlier Friday at QA Cantrell Funeral Home, police removed computers, phone records and other items, according to the Eastpointe Funeral Home lawyer.

Craig told reporters that he had met Friday with representatives of the state attorney general's office, the Wayne County Attorney's Office, the FBI and the LARA to discuss the way forward. to open a criminal investigation into the funeral homes of Cantrell and Perry.

"We do not know of any connection between the two funeral homes, but there are similarities, including inappropriate elimination of fetuses," said Craig. "We have discussed the possibility of a work team to investigate this, although this is preliminary.

"We could seek the help of the Michigan State Police at some point, as some of our investigations could move us away from the city of Detroit."

The Detroit police also raided the home of Annetta Cantrell, owner of Q A Cantrell Funeral Home. Lawyer Arnold Reed insists that the Eastpointe facility is not affiliated with the closed funeral home of the same name in Detroit, with the exception of. Annetta Cantrell who has previously been married to Raymond Cantrell, the former owner of the Detroit facility.

"The police stormed us early this morning at the funeral home and simultaneously at Annetta Cantrell's," said Reed. "They have laptops, bank statements, telephone records, etc. They are obviously looking for any connection between QA Cantrell and Cantrell in Detroit.

"They are throwing a Hail Mary, but we cooperated with them and gave them everything they wanted."

Craig, meanwhile, said that he had already planned to meet with county and state officials, but he asked the FBI to attend because of allegations according to which Perry Funeral Home fraudulently invoiced Medicaid and the state for burials and funeral services not performed.

Detroit police execute a search warrant at Perry Funeral Home in Detroit Friday afternoon, October 19, 2018. "We served a warrant on the spot," said Detroit Police Chief James Craig. "We are looking for evidence of improper disposal of remains or any other irregularity." (Photo: John T. Greilick, Detroit News)

FBI spokeswoman Constable Mara Schneider declined to comment on Friday.

Investigations began on October 12, when state inspectors were informed that fetus and infant bodies were improperly stored at Cantrell's Funeral Home on Mack Avenue. When state agents and the Detroit police entered the institution, they discovered the bodies of 11 babies – including 10 fetuses – hiding over a false ceiling.

This was done after the state inspectors closed the funeral home in April after discovering 21 poorly stored corpses, some of which were covered in mold. Upon their return in August, LARA employees found two other bodies, a fetus and the cremated remains of another body.

On Wednesday, the cremated remains of four other bodies were discovered in Cantrell by state inspectors. Since April, 38 unattended bodies and 269 containers of cremated remains have been discovered in the facility.

Craig said the investigation on Perry had taken place after the press conference organized by the police on the findings of the Cantrell case.

"One parent saw this and asked his lawyers to contact the police," he said. "He is the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit (against Perry Funeral Home, Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center, among others)."

The 72-page lawsuit filed in the Wayne County Court of Appeal in July states that Perry Funeral Home, located in Trumbull near Warren, has left the remains of stillborn and live babies in the morgue of the Wayne State University's morgue Science School for a period of up to three years. trying to warn parents, some of whom wanted to donate the bodies for medical research.

The lawsuit further alleges that Perry billed "fraudulently and misleadingly" Medicaid, the Detroit Medical Center / Harper-Hutzel Hospital and the State of Michigan for funeral services and burials not performed.

The lawsuits were filed by lawyers Rachel Brown and Larry Davis, parents of Alayah Davis, who were suffering from severe breathing problems after she was born on December 8, 2014. She survived only 27 minutes.

The lawsuit also states that Deak "fraudulently represented on Alayah's death certificate that Alayah's body was buried at Knollwood Memorial Cemetery, Canton, MI, when Perry learned that his remains were found, as well as those of some 35 to 36 other children and / or fetuses were stored at the Mortuary School of Mortgages at Wayne State University.

Perry further completed and filed at least seven additional false and fraudulent deferred death certificates for other newborns who died shortly after their birth in Detroit area hospitals, stating that their remains had been buried at … Knollwood Memorial Park Cemetery, "I said.

Perry Funeral Home lawyer Joshua I. Arnkoff said on Friday that "for now, I can only say that we are challenging the allegations".

Lawyers in this lawsuit, Peter J. Parks and Daniel W. Cieslak, attended a meeting Friday to discuss the allegations set out in their lawsuit, Craig said.

"We are expanding our investigation," said Craig. "We want to understand the reasons, was it financial, we do not know."

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