Accusations abound in Alabama

A news report and video story from NBC 15  that you can see here came out of came out of Alabama late last week.  The report, out of the town of Prichard in Mobile County, suggests that an illegal cemetery that was in use has allowed caskets to be dug up and reused.

The report also indicates that a search of New Ship Ministries and its physical location was searched by Mobile County Sheriff’s deputies last Friday.  According to both the video and news story, the report alleges that cadaver dogs discovered a funeral home inside and also discovered caskets that appear to have been dug up and ready for reuse.

Relatives of those with loved ones buried in the cemetery are concerned that that those people buried may not be inside caskets at this time.  The story states that the investigation by Mobile County will continue.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I served as a funeral director for about 35 years and how something like this could happen is beyond me.  While I understand it is just allegations at this time, it is my opinion that there would have to be multiple people involved such as a funeral director, the person that digs the grave, others at the place of business and on and on.

The world is full of really great funeral directors who serve above self all the time.  However, in the two years that I have been active with this blog and had to search the cyber world for funeral home, cemetery, and cremation related stories I continue to be amazed at what I think are some awful bad apples in our profession.  Just in my search on Saturday I came up with this story, a story on the continuing saga of the illegal body parts sale from a Colorado funeral home, and a story on the guilty plea of a cemetery owner for embezzling preneed funds from that place of business.

When these things happen, all of us in the industry are hurt.  Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I think the death care industry can do better.

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1 Comment

  1. Ed Michael Reggie on May 22, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    What news media call “the news,” we all have come to know, is generally the bad news. Disproportionately, things that go wrong get covered much more than things that go right. I hope and believe that your observations taken from news accounts are of the one percent of bad actors that happen to make the headlines. No funeral director who does an exemplary job day-in and day-out gets written about on page one. …or any page of the proverbial newspaper. There is much quality and many great people in funeral service doing great work everyday.



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