KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) Chains, an orange cone and a broom block the back parking lot of Savory and Sons Funeral Home in Kansas City, Missouri. The State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors shut down the troubled establishment last month.
That didn’t stop Michael Lee from taking a look after someone called him, concerned that ashes were discarded outside.
“Just a very horrible and disgusting situation to treat someone like that,” Lee said. “Some of them were laying inside the pile. Some of them were sitting straight up.”
He said the police and the medical examiner’s office wouldn’t take the remains. Lee knew he couldn’t leave them there, so he loaded them into his car and then called affiliate WDAF.
“As you can see, there are 17 individuals,” he said. “Someone’s loved ones that are in the back of my vehicle.”
He originally found 16 boxes outside, each labelled with a first and last name. After Lee left, he remembered seeing a plastic container outside off to the side. He went back for it.
“No tag, except for just ‘Michael Hughes, red and gold urn,'” Lee said.
One of the boxes of ashes dates back a decade. Also among the pile were two memorial jewelry boxes.
Most of the remains Lee found were people who died last year.
“I figured that we needed to go and take them into our custody where they would be safe for the night,” he said.
He took them 15 miles southwest to Serenity Funeral Home, owned by Michael Adkins.
“We have an oath to the funeral industry to do the right thing,” said Adkins, who accepted the ashes and promised to try to connect them with their respective families.
affiliate WDAF asked the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors how something like this could happen.
A spokesperson said the board revoked the funeral home’s license. The order cites several examples of families’ complaints and concludes that Savory and Sons Funeral Home should be shut down for incompetence, misconduct, gross negligence and fraud.
“The revocation of the license is the highest level of discipline the board can impose on a funeral establishment,” a spokesperson said.
However, the spokesperson said that this does not relinquish the funeral home of its responsibilities.
“A closure due to revocation of an establishment would not eliminate the establishment’s responsibility to properly care for cremated remains,” the spokesperson said.
affiliate WDAF asked Adkins if this is how it should have gone down.
“No, absolutely not,” he said in response.
Adkins created a list of the people whose remains were found.
A couple of days later, sisters Tanisha Williams and Jerrine Evans showed up at Serenity Funeral Home.
“It’s unreal,” Williams said.
Among the discarded ashes was their father, Michael Hughes. He died last January and was supposed to be in a red and gold urn. Instead, he was left in that plastic container.
“A plastic bag…like trash. It’s devastating,” Williams said.
It brought Evans to tears.
affiliate WDAF sat down with them, less than an hour after they finally reunited with their father’s remains.
“The people we trusted to handle this let us down,” Evans said.
A year and a half after his passing, he’s finally home.
“I can breathe now,” Williams said. “I haven’t grieved…since this happened.”
As for the rest of the families, Adkins said he will keep their loved ones’ remains safe.
“If I can’t reach them, they’ll be with me,” he said. “As long as Serenity is around, they’ll be with me.”
