Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced Monday that her office is seeking to close down a Chicago Heights, Illinois crematory accused of mishandling the remains of deceased people.
Mendoza’s office has suspended Heights Crematory and has also filed a complaint to revoke the license permanently. This follows a CBS News Chicago investigation on the practices at the crematory.
"I am appalled, disgusted, and deeply saddened by the disrespect Heights Crematory showed to the remains of the deceased, and we are working swiftly to strip the facility of its license," Mendoza said in a news release. "No family should have to wonder what happened to their loved one when they pass or learn a deceased family or friend wasn’t treated with the utmost respect and dignity they deserve."
As reported earlier this month, the CBS News Chicago Investigators obtained records showing Heights Crematory had been repeatedly warned by the state for their handling of bodies waiting to be cremated. Those violations came long before the CBS News Chicago Investigators obtained photos from a whistleblower that were taken inside a trailer where bodies were being stored.
The trailer is located on the property belonging to Heights, and the photos show deceased people partially wrapped in sheets or clear plastic bags, with their faces and body parts sticking out.
When CBS News Chicago tried talking to Heights Crematory operator Clark Morgan about photos of bodies being stored in this trailer on his property, he refused to comment.
CBS News Chicago later learned Illinois state regulators have warned Heights repeatedly about violations. In July of last year, the crematory was cited after the state found a "cadaver in a broken refrigerator" and "six to seven bodies waiting to be cremated on main floor," saying, "This is a violation."
Morgan was then warned again in October. State regulators wrote "conditions there were unacceptable." But records show the state was willing to give them "one more chance to improve things before we take legal action against the crematory license."
A document goes on to say the facility and trailers needed to be cleaned, and bodies needed to be put in the appropriate containers.
After that "one more chance to improve," Heights Crematory got hit again. Two months later in December came another citation for a cremation container violation, and the crematory was given 30 more days to fix the problem.
But just two months after that in February, a source provided CBS News Chicago with the photos taken in the trailer.
Mendoza’s office said her office first learned about the "egregious" problems at the crematory on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and sent staff to the facility on the spot. The staffers have been there every day since.
The Comptroller’s office said it immediately secured an agreement with the crematory to stop accepting new cases, and began working with the crematory to ensure it was properly handling paperwork and using best practices.
When investigators from the Comptroller’s office first arrived, there were about 100 bodies waiting to be cremated, Mendoza’s office said. That number is now down to 10, and the remaining 10 are being transferred to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, the Comptroller’s office said.
The Comptroller’s office investigators also confronted crematory staff about evidence of the refrigerated trailer. Crematory management admitted there was an additional trailer it had concealed containing 19 bodies from Indiana, and agreed to quit accepting bodies from that source, Mendoza’s office said.
There were also hundreds of boxes of unclaimed cremated remains for which the Comptroller’s office had to track down the paperwork, Mendoza’s ‘office said. Those remains are also going to the Medical Examiner’s office.
"State law is designed to give crematories that chance to fix documented issues. Closing a crematory business is a serious step our office does not take lightly and is something the office has never done before," Mendoza’s office said in a news release. "But when our office saw the images of bodies with limbs and faces exposed stacked on top of each other in coolers, some of them operational, some of them not, it became clear the owners of Heights simply are not up to the task of being entrusted with the remains of our loved ones."
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