More than 50 bodies, many reportedly in varying stages of decomposition, were discovered in the basement and attached garage of a Chicago funeral home, according to reports.
Chicago authorities were alerted Thursday to concerns involving South Chicago Chapel, prompting officials to request a police escort for an inspection of the property, sources told the Chicago Tribune.
Officers arrived and met with a state regulator, who said a complaint filed Monday claimed human remains at the funeral home were not being kept at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, as required under state regulations.
During a walkthrough of the facility, the regulator and three police officers found the remains of 57 people placed in several areas of the funeral home without refrigeration.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office is now working to identify the deceased and examine funeral home records as part of the ongoing investigation, according to ABC 7.
Funeral director Johanna Morgan has had her license suspended, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation records obtained by CBS News show.
Those records allege Morgan had been “allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions, including rodent infestation causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies.”
Investigators concluded that the funeral home’s “continued practice is a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare.”
More than four dozen bodies in various stages of decomposition were reportedly found in the basement and attached garage of a Chicago funeral home (pictured)
Officers were seen at the South Chicago Chapel on Thursday evening
According to a police report obtained by the Tribune, funeral director Clark Morgan initially told officers that, per his attorney’s instructions, he would not allow officers into the funeral home without a warrant.
Officers then informed him that a business license could be performed at any time during business hours – at which point Clark allegedly locked the doors and fled the scene.
Chicago Fire Department personnel then responded and forced entry into the funeral home, while a funeral was taking place for a 48-year-old man.
A squad car was then seen parked outside the funeral home while police officers blocked off the area as night descended on the city.
Officials from the city’s Department of Buildings were also spotted at the scene.
The tip on Thursday came after neighbors complained of a foul odor akin to a dead animal in the area for nearly two months. At times, the stench was so potent, it made it difficult to venture outside, they said.
‘Every time I come through here, I smell a foul smell in the air and I was wondering what that smell was, and I kept thinking maybe it was the sewer,’ Frank Bower told WGN. ‘That’s real awful.’
But neighbors have said they never suspected anything was amiss at the funeral home that had opened a couple of years ago.
Authorities blocked off the area surrounding the funeral home on Thursday night
Janice Skylas, who often does yard work outside, said she had not ‘thought anything about’ the strange smell.
Then a couple of weeks ago, she said she saw what appeared to be workers from the funeral home lay new white gravel outside.
‘But before that, it wasn’t a place I would take somebody,’ she said.
The horrifying discovery comes one year after CBS Chicago reporter Dave Savini announced that Heights Crematory in the city had been shut down, and its owners, Clark and Johanna Morgan agreed to close the facility to avoid a state hearing.
That closure came after the outlet found bodies stacked and stored illegally in a dirty trailer and more strewn across a warehouse.
Records obtained by the Daily Mail also show Johanna was previously reprimanded and fined $1,500 after she failed to file a death certificate in a timely manner.
She also previously had her license suspended in December 2017 for failure to pay state income taxes, and was fined $5,000 in 2020 for failing to complete three death records in a timely manner.
Then in 2023, the Heights Crematory also faced a $1.8 million lien.
