Woman died in 2007; family couldn't pay the funeral home

[Dual867PowerMac]

So the funeral director stashed the body and didn't bury it.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/02/26/dnt.body.found.car.wmba

:sick:

[bbt630]

This is quite a pickle for the funeral director...who pays the burial costs if the family doesn't?

[AutoRacer55]

Now we know where the zombie invasion started from.

[LouC]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A funeral director accused of leaving a woman's body to decay in a parked hearse after her relatives failed to pay the bill was arrested on a felony charge of abusing a corpse, police said Wednesday.

Watson and Sons Funeral Home embalmed the remains of Edna Kathleen Woods, 52, after she died of natural causes in November 2007, said Gadsden police Sgt. Jeff Wright.

Relatives wanted the body cremated but failed to sign the necessary paperwork or pay owner Harold Watson Sr., he said.

Someone complained about a foul smell near downtown Gadsden, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, and officers on Tuesday found the woman's remains in a cardboard box that was inside a locked hearse parked on a piece of property that Watson owns.

Funeral directors with unclaimed bodies can file a petition to have counties dispose of remains.

"He knows better. The family wouldn't pay him, so he just got rid of it," Wright said.

AP LINK (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_re_us/decaying_body_arrest_4)

Sounds like he needs a serious outside review of his business practices.

And the woman's family should question themselves and their lack of following through if the article is accurate.

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

So the funeral director stashed the body and didn't bury it.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/02/26/dnt.body.found.car.wmba

:sick:

Two points...the body was to be cremated..which there is not a full embalming of the body....just a complete draining of bodily fluids in preparation for said cremation.....and if that body isn't cremated within a short period of time...it can most certainly get 'ripe' by just laying about....ewwwww.

instead of purchasing a 'coffin' for burial,; a specialized drop bottom box/slide box is used for a 'viewing'; only if requested by the family; and then cremation. :confused:

so..why not save space...go ahead and cremate the body...put her in a urn...and then push for civil suit to receive payment before handing said urn over to the family? At least you wouldn't have a dead body stuck in some old hearse that you had to move every so often...I mean that's just sick!

I understand being upset over not being paid for services rendered...but this guy hadn't rendered any service that I can tell..(ie body was received by his funeral home...but nothing was done to it?)..so what in the heck was he waiting for? The second coming? :rolleyes:

Poor judgement..(as per the vid link of the sheriff speaking on the issue)...yeah..that's putting it mildly. Bet the family sues him right out of the funeral business! How freakin Gross!


~Mysty

[MrShotShot]

You would think there was some sort of legal path the guy could take in the case of an "abandoned body" - which is what I would call this.

Don't municipalities still have "paupers cemetaries" where they bury the indigent and such? I recall seeing one a few years back in MS and they would bury folks in heavy styrofoam boxes.

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

You would think there was some sort of legal path the guy could take in the case of an "abandoned body" - which is what I would call this.

Don't municipalities still have "paupers cemetaries" where they bury the indigent and such? I recall seeing one a few years back in MS and they would bury folks in heavy styrofoam boxes.

That sounds right...although I don't know about the styrofoam box part. :eh::eek::sick:

Couldn't what this man did be considered holding a body hostage?

~Mysty

[BillBrown]

You would think there was some sort of legal path the guy could take in the case of an "abandoned body" - which is what I would call this.

Don't municipalities still have "paupers cemetaries" where they bury the indigent and such? I recall seeing one a few years back in MS and they would bury folks in heavy styrofoam boxes.

Yes they do.
They have to because of the dead winos and dope heads they find on the street.
Here, if you do not have the money to bury a loved one, the county will give them a pauper's burial.

[birddog1]

Same thing happend in a community near me about a year ago except the funeral director handled it properly. He kept the body for the required amout of time, petitioned the court for permission to dispose of the body, then cremated it. I would say he most likely got some compensation from the local government for the related expenses.

[AngelO'Death]

This is not as shocking as what happened in ATL a few years back.

The Tri-State Crematory was the subject of a national incident in the United States in 2002 leading to litigation and criminal prosecution, in which over three hundred bodies that had been consigned to a crematorium for proper disposal were never cremated but instead were dumped on the crematorium's site. :sick:

[MrShotShot]

This is not as shocking as what happened in ATL a few years back.

:sick:

I remember that and never did understand it - is it really that expensive to cremate someone?

[BillBrown]

I remember that and never did understand it - is it really that expensive to cremate someone?

The case in GA-
The guy who dumped the bodies ran a crematorium.
His oven was broken, but he continued to accept bodies to cremate.
He dumped the bodies all over the area.
He gave the families cement dust and told them it was ashes.

[AngelO'Death]

I remember that and never did understand it - is it really that expensive to cremate someone?

In this case, the incinerator was not operable and instead of pony'ing up and having it fixed, he found it was easier (at the moment) to take people’s money and dump the bodies in the lake (or near it).

[CID_0687]

You would think there was some sort of legal path the guy could take in the case of an "abandoned body" - which is what I would call this.

Don't municipalities still have "paupers cemetaries" where they bury the indigent and such? I recall seeing one a few years back in MS and they would bury folks in heavy styrofoam boxes.
Gadsden, AL, where this happened is where my inlaws live. It's about 30 miles from the town I live in. The state law is that if a family can't pay for burial or cremation the mortician files an app with the county coroner's office. They will then dispose of the body.

[Samm]

This is quite a pickle for the funeral director...who pays the burial costs if the family doesn't?

He should have just returned the body to the family... Left the cardboard coffin on their front porch if they wouldn't open the door. Why should he have to be the one to apply to the City for reimbursement... they should be responsible for doing that if they cannot pay. Perhaps he showed poor judgement (potentially ruining the hearse,) but he should not be held responsible for their poverty and/or indifference.

[CID_0687]

He should have just returned the body to the family... Left the cardboard coffin on their front porch if they wouldn't open the door. Why should he have to be the one to apply to the City for reimbursement... they should be responsible for doing that if they cannot pay. Perhaps he showed poor judgement (potentially ruining the hearse,) but he should not be held responsible for their poverty and/or indifference.
True, but because the guy didn't spend 15 minutes filling out the app he will lose his mortician licence and having to pay a huge fine. All because of his ignorance. The family already had documents stating the corpse had been cremated, but the guy was holding the ashes until they paid. Of course if that was the case it seems like they could have set up a payment plan of some sort.

IMO the funeral home and the family are at fault.

And knowing that town as well as I do your thought of poverty is probably correct.

[Pudge]

So the funeral director stashed the body and didn't bury it.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/02/26/dnt.body.found.car.wmba

:sick:

What's wrong with a pine box and the backyard?

[johnrocks]

Sad thing is, a 50 year old woman could have gotten her affairs in order and got final expense insurance(burial ins.) for $20 a month that would have paid for a descent funeral.

[Samm]

Sad thing is, a 50 year old woman could have gotten her affairs in order and got final expense insurance(burial ins.) for $20 a month that would have paid for a descent funeral.

My mother planned and paid for her funeral a couple of years before she died (at age 98.) She bought the cheapest box (fiber-board I think) she could because she knew that we (we siblings) would be too embarrassed to do that. Her philosophy was that it was a complete waste of money to be buried in an ornate hardwood coffin and that the quicker that cheap box rotted, the sooner she would return to the earth.

I miss that old lady... :neutral:

[waynevan]

Hi,

I hear somewhere about payable on death account. Please let me know What is a payable on death account? What's the legal process for that?

>>CLICK HERE<< (http://www.mmbb.org/benefits_death.cfm)

[waynevan]

Please let me know, What services are provided by funeral home? and How funeral director help in that services?


>>CLICK HERE<< (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_director)

[rydejacob]

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