Chicago funeral home bodies are now the focus of a fast-moving identification effort after investigators found nearly 60 remains improperly stored at South Chicago Chapel. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said the process for identifying the dead and notifying families could take days, while relatives wait for word on how their loved ones were handled.
Authorities said state and federal officials alerted the medical examiner's office after the discovery on Thursday. Investigators have been working through the night to remove bodies from the funeral home and begin the identification process. The remains were described as being in various states of decomposition, adding urgency to a case that has left families worried and searching for answers.
Records reviewed by the BBC's media partner CBS News said the funeral home's director, Johanna Morgan, allowed multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area under deplorable conditions. Those conditions reportedly included rodent infestation, which contributed to decomposition and maggot infestation. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said it suspended Morgan's license.
Outside the funeral home, Chicago officials were seen loading body bags into vans on Friday. The business did not respond to multiple calls for comment. For families, the shock has already given way to painful uncertainty. One woman told CBS News Chicago that her sister had been supposed to be cremated there, but she no longer knows whether she received her sister's remains.
“We don't know if Melody is in there or not,” Patrice Halliburton said. She said her family felt more fear than anger for now, and wanted to hold off on anger until they knew exactly what happened. Her comments capture the human cost of the Chicago funeral home bodies case: behind every label and every bag is a family trying to make sense of a loss that has been made worse.
