34 bodies moved from funeral home by police

[DrJoanAllenby]

This sounds horrendous.

https://news.sky.com/story/man-and-woman-arrested-after-34-bodies-were-moved-by-police-from-funeral-director-13092104?fbclid=IwAR3VpSwxkaCKWvb7U3APBTuMXvq5ZRD-htvvO3VJBPnGQzb6EKD5EobNJ00aemAXCo9AsWsN7prAlQiNwrV8gBXDDnByZQvpSQsusIws3RVyyVhTFVAMWAsEnFe_1bJUk

I wonder how the problem was discovered? Could have been going on a long time. Shudder to think of the mindset of someone who would take advantage of the deceased and bereaved relatives.

How distressing for those involved.

as people have been arrested in connection with a criminal investigation, i don't think we should be discussing this.
most of the comments here are prejudicial, presuming the guilt of the people arrested.
contempt of court act 1981, section 1; strict liability rule.

But you'd be left with extra bodies?

oops wrong thread

But you'd be left with extra bodies?

Hence the 34 bodies that have been "seized by police" and taken to the mortuary.

Oh shit. My bad sorry. That's awful

What did they think they were going to do with them then?

I also didnt know it wasnt licensed (probably spelt that wrong too)

Since the information came from a member of the public and the police then "raced" there at 3 am - if that's accurate - one wonders whether they were trying to smuggle bodies out in the middle of the night and were seen.

I feel for the families. Horrible complication to grief to discover this.

To whoever said that sound like a lot of funerals, I host up to 25 funerals at my church alone each year, small town, aging population. My local funeral directors had 17 in last week, most will be direct to crem or crematorium ceremonies rather than church. It's constant down here, people retire here.

I wonder if they were cremating incorrectly " during the night and its been reported?

ah I thought they were a crematorium disregard what I said.

It’s fraud and prevention of a lawful burial that they were arrested for.

So they were not doing what they were paid for. Taking the money and not carrying out the service. That’s a lot of bodies they had.

And clearly if it was a 3am job. They were doing something with the bodies at 3 am which police deemed as an emergency that they had to stop. I’d assume a member of the public saw them and reported. Or someone who knows what was going on at that time.

they were clearly charging for a service. Not doing it. And then trying to dispose of the bodies in a way that was illegal.

I assumed it was a 3am raid as they knew no one would be in

I don’t think they need no one to be in to be fair. In fact better they are in to arrest them.

There was a horrible case in the USA recently where a funeral parlour that specialised in "natural burials" was raided for similar issues.

Good point

Yes, population of Hull is about quarter of a million and the death rate in the UK is a bit less than 1% a year (varying by area demographics) so you'd expect over 2,000 deaths a year in the area. This is just one tiny funeral parlour.

Some people don’t. My dad had a direct cremation. Straight from the hospital to the crematorium for the cremation. His wife was then handed the ashes. She wouldn’t have known whether they were his ashes or not, all
done on trust 🤷‍♀️

Maybe they were cremating more than one body at a time?

I think whatever has happened it's rare. I worked at an undertakers and everything was done so respectfully and with great care/respect. And there is a LOT of official paperwork.

I cannot understand how they were storing that amount of bodies. The place I worked was a large and busy independent undertaker and could only store 14 at any time, and if they were reaching capacity they had an agreement with another local firm that they could use their fridges. It was fairly standard.

I agree with this. At the moment, they’ve only been accused and we can’t presume guilt. Hopefully MN will delete this thread ASAP. It’s fairer to the families if the accused aren’t subject to armchair detectives jeopardising any investigation.

Hull is a small city of around 250,000, but they will operate within the East Riding of Yorkshire as well with a combined population of around 600,000. There are three branches of the funeral directors and I'm assuming the 34 bodies have been taken from across the three sites, though I'm not sure what a normal number would be for a funeral directors to manage.

They were probably selling organs. Hence the 'fraud' mention.

You get crazy $$$$$ for organs.

TBF, it's fraud simply to take money for a service and pretend you've provided that service, when you haven't,

I very much doubt they were selling organs. Don't be silly.