The owner of a south Georgia funeral home has been charged with 17 counts of abuse of a dead body after 18 decomposing bodies, including those of children, were found in a cooler at the facility.
Coffee county sheriff’s office deputies were serving an eviction notice on Saturday at Johnson Funeral Home when the remains were discovered in “various stages of decomposition”, investigators said.
The funeral home’s director, Chris Johnson, 39, was arrested and charged. Johnson had reportedly stopped paying rent on the property, leading to an eviction notice.
Along with 18 bodies, including “more than one child”, a dog and a cat were also stored in the cooler. The Douglas fire department hazmat team was called to the scene.
The warrant for Johnson’s arrest said he had “knowingly and willfully defaced a dead body while the body is prepared for burial, showing, or cremation in a funeral establishment”.
It further stated “willful negligence in his duties as a funeral home director and intentional disregard of proper storage” led to remains being kept for excessive periods, resulting in severe disfigurement of 17 bodies. Johnson was denied bail at a hearing.
Earlier this year, Johnson ran for Coffee county coroner but was defeated by Brandon Musgrove, receiving just under 29% of the vote, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
After the election, Johnson announced plans to run again in four years.
“I will use these next four years to grow with each and every one of you,” he said.
The discovery comes after another case in the state in which a man, Ray Brent Marsh, pleaded guilty to 787 counts of theft, abuse of a corpse and burial service fraud after the remains of 334 people were found at his business in 2002. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The owners of a Colorado funeral home pleaded guilty to fraud earlier this week after 200 decomposing bodies were discovered at their business, the Return to Nature funeral home.
According to the US justice department, Jon and Carie Hallford did not bury or cremate bodies entrusted to them and gave family members urns filled with dry concrete mix instead of ashes. They also used an $800,000 pandemic business loan on personal purchases, including vacations, cosmetic medical procedures and cryptocurrency.
Investigators said that conditions inside the Colorado Springs business were so disgusting that a paramedic investigating the site developed a rash and had to be medically evaluated.