The stench of decomposing bodies drew police to an Indiana funeral home where they found bodies stacked up — possibly since March.
Investigators on Friday found 31 bodies at the Lankford Funeral Home in various stages of decomposition, as well as the “post-cremation remains” of 16 people, according to the Jeffersonville Police Department.
The air conditioning at the funeral home had gone out, resulting in a foul smell that alerted nearby neighbors, a source told local station WDRB.
The remains were all taken to the Clark County Coroner’s Office for identification.
It’s unclear if police are pursuing criminal charges against the funeral home owner. A spokesperson for the Jeffersonville Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News Sunday.
Kandi Rogers, whose son Dominic died in December, told WDRB that he wasn’t cremated for six or seven weeks after his funeral at Lankford and that she was given a string of excuses, including a backlog of COVID-19 patients.
“We trust these people in the hardest time of our lives, at least for me, and to go and do that to somebody — I would never do that to somebody in (my) life,” she said. “For them to take advantage of people and especially to treat your loved ones the way that they did — it’s not right.”
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