LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A federal probe continues to unearth details about the mysterious disposal of over 300 heaps of human remains scattered across a desert near Las Vegas. On Wednesday, a funeral home took action to retrieve them.
The initial revelation of more than 100 piles of cremated remains was brought to light by the 8 News Now Investigators in August. The individual who discovered the ashes reached out to 8 News Now, recounting how he stumbled upon the site on July 28 in a remote desert area near Searchlight, a small community located roughly an hour south of Las Vegas along U.S. 95.
In August, an official from the Bureau of Land Management verified that the piles were indeed human cremains and stated that an investigation was underway. The term “cremains” refers to the remains of a person after cremation.
On Wednesday, Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries personnel successfully removed about 315 piles from the desert. A subsequent investigation led to the discovery of an additional area with more piles close to the original dumping location reported by 8 News Now Investigators.
Commonly referred to as “ashes,” cremains consist of pulverized bone fragments left after the cremation process.
“I think most of us just felt like, ‘What a shame,’” expressed Celena DiLullo, president of Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries.
Each pile represents a person who lived in the Southern Nevada community. The piles are likely the work of a commercial funeral home business, several sources confirm to the 8 News Now Investigators.
DiLullo and other Palm employees moved each pile into a bag and into an individual urn during the recovery effort on Wednesday.
There is no law in Nevada barring a person from scattering ashes on public land. State law requires funeral operators to preserve the “dignity” of any remains in their care. BLM policy allows for a person to scatter cremated remains; however, the policy limits “commercial distribution of cremated remains.” A mass dumping site, like this one, likely violates federal law.
“I don’t know if it was the wishes of these people to be out, so that’s kind of what goes through my mind,” DiLullo said. “If this is not how they would want to be remembered, we would just want to have a place for them to be.”
Palm will place all 315 remains into a crypt at one of its cemeteries so loved ones can find them, DiLullo said. Each pile no longer contained any identifiable information as of Wednesday. In August, some piles contained pieces of zip ties, which crematories use to close bags of ashes. Pieces of a broken urn also littered part of the site.
“I think it’s important to us to make sure that these people are not forgotten and not left,” DiLullo said. “It’s important to our community and our profession that we demonstrate how much we do care about these people.”
The remains are not connected to McDermott’s Funeral Home, which the Nevada Funeral and Cemetery Services Board closed in August.
Several sources have suggested to the 8 News Now Investigators that the remains came from another recently closed funeral home. A representative from that business, which is headquartered out of state, has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Tips can be submitted to the BLM at blm_law_enforcement@blm.gov.
8 News Now Investigator David Charns can be reached at dcharns@8newsnow.com.
