CHICAGO (AP) — More than 50 bodies were found improperly stored and decomposing Thursday at a Chicago funeral home run by a couple who previously operated a crematory that was similarly shut down because of mishandled remains, authorities said.
Illinois state officials, meanwhile, suspended the license of one of the funeral home’s directors, alleging bodies were being kept in an unrefrigerated area in “deplorable conditions.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said it was notified by state and local officials that bodies were being stored improperly at South Chicago Chapel, and investigators and forensic pathologists were dispatched. The remains were in various states of decomposition, officials said.
“Staff is assessing the conditions of the remains, searching for documentation regarding identification of the decedents as well as death certificates. This process could take several days to ensure proper disposition,” the medical examiner’s office said in a statement.
Police said Friday that their preliminary statement on the case incorrectly said that fire department officials declared the scene a hazardous materials incident.
No arrests have been announced, but city police said detectives are investigating.
Neighbors reported a smell
Neighbors told local media outlets that there was a horrible smell coming from the funeral home area.
Messages for the funeral home were left by phone and through its website Friday.
State business records show that funeral director Johanna Morgan incorporated South Chicago Chapel Inc. in 2022 and her funeral director’s license was temporarily suspended on Wednesday.
The state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said the license suspension was due to “a finding that Respondent’s continued practice is a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare due to Respondent allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies.”
The state business records also list Clark X. Morgan as the funeral home’s president. The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said it revoked the funeral director license of a Clark X. Morgan and fined him $10,000 in 2024 for practicing with an expired license and “unprofessional conduct” that it did not specify.
Comptroller responds
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Friday that Johanna and Clark Morgan previously ran a crematory in Chicago Heights, south of Chicago, which had its license revoked last year after authorities discovered improperly stored bodies and hundreds of cremated remains that had never been returned to their families.
Mendoza said many of the bodies at the crematory were stacked on top of each other and not refrigerated.
“Horrified. Again,” Mendoza said in a statement. “The discovery of decomposing remains waiting to be laid to rest this week at a South Side funeral home is heartbreaking and an abomination. These are people – someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, child or friend, and they deserve better.”
Both Johanna and Clark Morgan are listed in Cook County court records as defendants in connection with lawsuits involving Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, south of Chicago.
Public records show Johanna and Clark X. Morgan live at the same address in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park, and an obituary for Johanna Morgan’s mother lists her husband as Clark. Phone messages were left Friday for numbers listed in public records for Johanna and Clark Morgan, as well as for an attorney listed in records as their business agent.
South Chicago Chapel’s website says the funeral home is “dedicated to providing compassionate care and personalized services to support families during life’s most challenging moments.”
Other Illinois cases
The case is the latest in a series of incidents involving mishandled remains over the past three years.
Capitol News Illinois reported in 2023 that state regulators allowed a Carlinville funeral director to operate for months despite a complaint filed by a local coroner who found a decomposing body in his funeral home and alleged the care of the remains was “unacceptable and criminal in nature.”
While trying to assist a local family with retrieving cremated remains in March, Morgan County Coroner Marcy Patterson found the unrefrigerated corpse in the embalming room of Heinz Funeral Home. She contacted IDFPR, the state agency that oversees funeral directors, and filed a complaint.
IDFPR took no immediate action against the funeral home director Albert August “Gus” Heinz, allowing him to continue to handle arrangements for grieving and unsuspecting families. It wasn’t until Oct. 5 — days after another local coroner went public with what he found at the funeral home — that Heinz agreed to allow the agency to revoke his funeral director license. The coroner later filed an affidavit saying Heinz might have misidentified up to 800 human remains.
A judge in 2024 approved a special prosecutor in the Heinz case, but only to look into whether Heinz committed forgery, not to investigate his handling of human remains. As of Friday, he had not been charged with any crimes.
CNI also reported in 2024 that IDFPR waited weeks to act on a complaint that described a Centralia funeral home as a “scary, filthy freak show.”
More than 10 weeks after the initial complaint — and three days after a Capitol News Illinois reporter visited the funeral home and sent questions to IDFPR — funeral home director Hugh Moran said the agency conducted an inspection. A week after the news outlet published its official story, Moran permanently surrendered his license.
Other states
Last month, police arrested two men in Pueblo, Colorado, for allegedly mishandling at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home.
That followed the discovery of 18 bodies in various stages of decomposition at a funeral home in Georgia in 2024. In 2023, nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in a building in Colorado, and another 31 decomposing bodies were discovered at an Indiana funeral home.
Dave Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Capitol News Illinois’ Jerry Nowicki and Beth Hundsdorfer contributed background on the previous Illinois cases.
