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Police: Cremated Remains Found in Houston-Area Abandoned Funeral Home
Stafford, Texas
Police have learned the cremated remains of 15 people were left abandoned at a now-vacant funeral home.
Those remains, 4 of whom belong to children, were found in the 1250 block of FM 2234 on March 1, according to a Stafford Police Department statement.
Property management personnel helped police move the remains to their department for processing.
Detectives are requesting assistance to locate the family members of the deceased:
— Rosie L. Johnson
— Bobby J. Jones
— Raynor Wyatt (child)
— Ayana Etuknwa
— Roger Dale Norris
— Rabon Smith Sr.
— Juanita H. Williams
Family members, or anyone with information, are asked to contact Detective Hardin at 281-208-6991 or at his email address: jhardin@staffordpd.com .
Houston Texas Cemetery Admits To Flubbed Grave Plots
Houston, Texas
Several children’s graves may be mismarked and their families may not even know about it. The problem is at the Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, owned by Service Corporation International (SCI Hispana), in southeast Houston.
This all came to light because of one Houston-area family. They started asking probing questions about their own loved ones gravesite. They’d been visiting it for years. They planned to place a headstone on the grave.
Their plans suddenly changed when they say a cemetery employee told them they’ve been visiting the wrong grave all this time. Farrell was furious.
“Where I was sitting was someone else’s little girl,” LeAnne Farrell said.
When we first asked general manager John Krasnick questions, he wasn’t eager to answer them.
Farrell says she was told her son’s grave is marked correctly but that several other children’s graves may not be.
Japan’s Latest Disaster: Radiation-Contaminated Corpses
As if the Japanese government did not have enough on its hands, now it has this dilemma: What to do with as many as 1,000 bodies near the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant that may be contaminated with radiation.
A solution will require decisive action and a high-degree of delicacy.
After losing family members to the tsunami and earthquake, most Japanese would normally go forward with a traditional cremation and place the remains with those of the victims’ kin. But the bodies near the plant have been exposed to radiation, making them potentially dangerous to handle or move. And nearly a month after the disaster, decontaminating them so they can be transported is rapidly becoming impossible.
From Starbucks to pedicures, Texas funeral homes are taking a creative approach for profits.
Owners of a funeral home in the Dallas suburb of McKinney are hoping to project a more progressive image and replace the overall decline in funeral spending nationwide. They now sell Starbucks coffee.
Visitors to the mortuary making arrangements for loved ones can now have a macchiato instead of the ordinary cup of joe.
Turrentine Morrow Jackson Funeral Home, a family-owned business that has been operating in McKinney since 1945, opened a coffee shop in February as part of a building upgrade.
According to representatives of the firm, “We’ve had customers ask us where the nearest Starbucks was.” We finally felt it would be OK to extend this type of service to our customers.” It fits our philosophy of having everything you need at one location.”
A little farther down south, in the Houston area, another funeral director is making plans to offer pedicure services.
As consumers continue to spend-down and the popularity of cremation escalates, funeral homes have been facing revenue shortages. Many are jumping on the social media bandwagon, while adding novelty items such as cremation jewelry, pet urns, and other trinkets. Time will tell if consumers are ready for coffee and pedicures down at their local funeral home, or if they will view these services to be “out of place” next to the dead.
Houston Funeral Home Swindles Veteran’s Family
Houston, Texas
A funeral provider in Houston sold a family a burial vault even though the veteran’s cemetery furnished a concrete grave liner at no charge. The sale was closed because the salesman informed the family that it was a legal requirement for them to have a vault in the State of Texas even though the grave liner was furnished at no charge by the VA.
Ken Lambert noticed the additional charges during an invoice review. When the family was asked, they stated what the salesman had told them. They did not think it was right but they went along with it. The funeral home owner was contacted but would not cooperate until Ken stated that the family was prepared to sign affidavits to the Funeral Service Commission and the Federal Trade Commission stating that the salesman sold them the vault as a “legal requirement”, which was a specific violation of the law. The owner then refunded the $995 for the vault even though the veteran was buried with the merchandise.
Trouble Again in Chicago Cemetery: More Bodies Found Dumped at Burr Oak Cemetery
Chicago, Illinois
A number of bodies were found in a back section of the troubled Burr Oak cemetery in Chicago, according to reports, remains which were allegedly dumped by the cemetery’s owners.
“There are more people listed as being buried in the cemetery than can physically be buried based on space,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart told NBC Chicago March 21.
Chicago-based company Archaeological Research Inc. surveyed the cemetery and found that bodies were buried in a previously unused portion of the cemetery in ground that was littered with broken headstones, branches, leaves and excess soil.
In a statement released to the press, lawyers for Perpetua Holdings, the company responsible for Burr Oak, said that this development is not unusual and they plan to fight the allegations.
“In the case of a cemetery as old as Burr Oak Cemetery, it is not uncommon for such an area to contain some human and wooden coffin remains,” the statement said. “Prior to the use of concrete vaults, these wooden coffins deteriorated very quickly.”
The African-American community in Chicago is particularly outraged over the developments because Burr Oak was one of the first cemeteries in the city to allow Blacks to be buried.
“There has to be complete closure for these families,” Dart continued. “The only way to do that is to forever designate that back area as a memorial to all the people who are there and who may be there.”
In July 2009, the cemetery’s manager Carolyn Towns, along with workers Keith Nicks, Terrence Nicks and Maurice daily were charged with dismembering human bodies.
According to reports, the cemetery is searching for a new owner. If one isn’t found, the government may have to take ownership of the cemetery.
Swedish Company Promessa Offers to Freeze and Explode Your Corpse
A Swedish company has developed a way to deal with human remains that removes the most pollutant aspects of burial by sending them the way of the Terminator.
Swedish Ecological Burial company Promessa wants to freeze human bodies and shatter them into millions of pieces using mechanical vibrations.
The body is frozen to around -18C and submerged into liquid nitrogen, allowing the body to become brittle.
Once the body is sufficiently brittle, it is shocked with mechanical vibrations, shattering it into a powder.
The process doesn’t end there, either. Weight is still an issue.
Once in powder form, the remains still weigh about as much as a human body, but Promessa has developed a solution for that too.
The powder is placed in a vacuum chamber which sets about removing water from the remains, shedding about 70% of the body’s mass.
Water boils instantly in a vacuum so the water is literally steamed from the body.
All that remains after this process are organic materials, metal parts, (mostly life-saving technological devices implanted in the body such as pacemakers – which are removed) and mercury.
The company recommends placing the remains in a cornstarch coffin which should be buried in a plot that allows the remains to break down into compost within a year-and-a-half. Hardwood coffins, additives and large cemetery plots are a no no.
California Lawmaker Tries Again to Legalize Liquified Corpses After Safety Concerns Raised
When a loved one dies, families typically are left with two options: burial or cremation.
A California lawmaker wants to give families a third option, which is being pitched as a “green alternative” to traditional cremation — chemically dissolve the body, keep the powdery residue and pour the liquefied remains down the drain.
But the procedure, too graphic to describe, has had some trouble getting off the ground. Assemblyman Jeff Miller had to shelve his proposal last year after a visiting scientist pointed out that the process might not be as safe as advertised.
Houston Area Funeral Home Scam Adds to Grieving Mother’s Tragedy
Houston, Texas
Her 11-year old son was shot and killed. If you think things couldn’t get any worse, you’re wrong.
The grieving mother, now, isn’t sure where her deceased son’s body is.
“A person’s worse nightmare” Fort Bend County Deputy District Attorney Scott Carpenter said.
Carpenter said the mother turned to Rylan C. Scott Funeral Home in Stafford after her son was shot and killed. In addition to funeral services for her son, the mother said she bought several burial plots.
“She thought it would be nice to, when she ultimately dies, to be buried close to her son. So she arranged with Mr. Scott to purchase three funeral plots adjoining her son’s,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said the mother in mourning paid $2,100: $700 for each plot.
According to Carpenter, 29-year-old Rylan Charles Scott told the mother he was part owner of a cemetery in Stafford. In fact, Craven Cemetery is a place where Fort Bend County buries the poor for absolutely free of charge.
“Mr. Scott has been indicted for selling funeral plots here in Fort Bend County that he did not own,” Carpenter said.
The grieving mother said when she visited the plots; the ground had not been disturbed. She said Scott then told her the location of the plots had changed and her son was buried in a different spot in the cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Rylan Charles Scott has been indicted on two felony counts including theft and tampering with a government document. The state of Texas slapped the Rylan C. Scott Funeral Home with seven different state violations from 2007 to last year after a number of complaints.
The funeral home has now changed ownership, according to the state. The Texas Funeral Service Commission oversees Texas funeral establishments.
Anyone can make an open records request with the agency to find out if the funeral home they are planning to do business with has complaints against it. That is one step that could have avoided a lot of heartache for this grieving mother.
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