Detroit funeral home shut down where mold-covered bodies found

DETROIT — Michigan regulators shuttered a Detroit funeral home Wednesday after two bodies appeared to be covered in mold and the facial area of a third body was covered in unknown fluids.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs said that, in response to a complaint from the public, inspectors from its Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing bureau discovered “deplorable, unsanitary conditions” and remains in advanced stage of decomposition at Cantrell Funeral Home on Detroit’s east side.

The embalming room was described as unsanitary and unclean, with peeling and chipping paint, and embalmed bodies were found April 10 to be improperly stored in an unrefrigerated garage since November and December, the regulatory affairs department said in its announcement Wednesday, which cited several more violations.

The department summarily suspended the funeral home’s mortuary science establishment license because of multiple violations of the state’s occupational code and the Prepaid Funeral and Cemetery Sales Act, and for being an “imminent threat to the public health and safety.”

The agency also summarily suspended the funeral home’s prepaid funeral and cemetery sales registration and the individual mortuary science license for Jameca LaJoyce Boone, the establishment’s designated manager.

Attempts to reach Boone by phone at the funeral home were unsuccessful.

“Michigan residents trust funeral home directors, owners, and their establishments to follow the law, especially when dealing with the death of a loved one,” said Julia Dale, director of the Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing bureau, in a news release. “We will continue to aggressively hold every funeral home in Michigan to the highest standards of public health and safety when providing final arrangements.

According to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, absent any statutory exception, it is a criminal misdemeanor under the Michigan Penal Code to fail to or refuse to properly supervise the disposition of a body after agreeing to provide the services of a funeral director within 60 days of receiving the body.

The investigation is ongoing, the agency said, and could result in additional charges.

The closure of the Cantrell Funeral Home is the latest shutdown of such an establishment in Detroit. In January, the Barksdale Funeral Home, where unsanitary conditions were discovered, was closed, and in February 2017, the Jarzembowski Funeral Home was shuttered for improperly handling nearly $200,000 in prepaid contracts.

In addition, inspectors cited the following violations at Cantrell Funeral Home:

• Improper storage of embalmed bodies found April 25, with two bodies in an advanced stage of decomposition, covered in what appeared to be mold and in the establishment’s possession since January and February and a third body with the facial area covered in unknown fluids.

• Operating with an expired prepaid funeral and cemetery sales registration and failing to assign its existing prepaid contracts to another registrant or to cancel its prepaid contracts and issue refunds of the contracts to the contract buyers.

• Continuing to engage in activities requiring a registration under the Prepaid Act, including the sale of at least three prepaid contracts.

• Failure to deposit at least $21,574 received for prepaid funeral goods or services related to 13 prepaid funeral contracts (a preliminary assessment in this ongoing investigation).

• Failure to deposit monies with an authorized escrow agent within 30 days of receipt, under the Prepaid Act.

• Fraud, deceit, or dishonesty, incompetence, and gross negligence in the practice of mortuary science.