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

My Dad gave his body for medical research.
Zero cost to me.
They collected his body directly from the hospital.
Ashes were returned 9 months later.

@Anonymouse2019 yes I saw that, it’s odd & quite worrying really.
What have they been doing that would involve water?

My mum wants to do this. She's not being very proactive about getting the paperwork done and it's making me panic a bit.

There’s another news story that I won’t link (DM). Interviews with families explain that often funeral services took place in the funeral home not at the crematorium. The deceased were then meant to be transported for cremation later on.

All four of my grandparents and several aunts and uncles did it too.
Least stress least cost approach.
https://www.hta.gov.uk/body-donation-faqs
Its a good thing to do

and in my case meant I had no funeral to organise
just a celebration memorial
and then ashes scattering later

I'm sure I read a Twitter thread some time ago by someone who had suspicions about her mum's body. Could've got that wrong but will go have a look.

Edit - it was in Shropshire and nothing to do with the article in the OP.

I have been uneasy of the direct cremation for a while.

My MIL, had a direct cremation and the cost was £1500, for that we did not get informed of anything, her “ashes” were sent in the post (and left outside my FIL front door) in a plastic box. 3 months later. We had no idea if they were her.

When my Mum passed away, the funeral, coffin and everything cost £1800 people are being taking advantage of paying £1500.

We had no idea where my MIL was taken what conditions she was kept in after death, I am sure she had no dignity.

Funeral home robbing is definitely a thing.

I live next door to one, they have a large body storage bit in the back.

The security is quite intense, lots of high quality cctv and someone lives in the top floor of the building (which isn’t a separate flat, it’s open to the downstairs) because they said they wanted someone to be in the building overnight.

I am assuming that they are using the specialist personnel as regular police in this instance as they have had to find a huge number of officers at short notice.

I've also seen an article this evening that noted how a gentleman died then his wife paid for some of his ashes to be made into crystals for herself & her daughter (& another woman whose relationship to the man I have forgotten).

The police have just recently informed her that her husband's body is one of those found at this funeral home.

How absolutely devastating - but whose ashes too have they been wearing close?

And that deceased family may never know what became of their loved one too.

This is horrendous for all the families concerned and I hope for resolutions for those affected. The police will get to the bottom of this.

An earlier post stated Companies House doesn't check anything [submitted to it]. The ECCT Act 2023 has changed this and the powers of the Registrar have been increased. Changes are being phased in, but it should make a significant difference.

Read the DM article this morning of a family receiving ashes last year and now being informed their loved ones body has been found in a freezer. Absolutely torturous for all concerned and anyone who has ever used them.

Easy to miss that the article mentions that a body can only be frozen with legal permission so freezers used instead of coolers.

It's amazing they got away with it that long if sub contractors are used (maybe this is the whistle blower?) however if theyre doing lots of direct cremations I expect no extra staff needed often.

I wonder what the exit plan was for these people when they had too many bodies to store.

'Another devastated relative, Emma Osborne, said that she had been informed that her stepfather Danny Middleton may be one of the 34 bodies, despite relatives being supposedly given his ashes a month ago.
The funeral service took place in the Legacy branch and she said his body 'has just been found in the morgue'.

Ms Osborne told the Telegraph: 'As far as we know he has got his ID band on him, that's all we know, he has not been identified properly.
'They [the funeral directors] have given my step-brother ashes a month ago, they have given him ashes saying that it was my step-dad. I think there might be a number of other people that have been in the same [position][, that's all I can say.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13184927/amp/families-hull-legacy-funeral-directors-fear-ashes-not-dead-loved-ones.html

This is awful. Those poor families.

I'm struggling to get my head around what the fraud may have been and what the gain would have been to the funeral home. It was either incompetence and they were so disorganised they didn't know which body was where or were people paying for cremation but the funeral home were not cremating anyone and therefore incurring no costs but pocketing the fees from the family? If so, what on earth were they planning to do with the extra bodies. It is horrifying.

That's heartbreaking.

Are funeral places subject to any spot checks ever?

That's worrying. My mum has paid for a direct cremation for when the time comes. I'm still in very mixed minds about not having a funeral for her :( And stories like this are giving me anxiety 😞

I am sorry that I have given you anxiety.

The not having a funeral, is another subject, my husband has found the whole thing, quite traumatic as her death was not expected.

One morning she woke up, died and that was it…

I swear I read about this a few weeks ago!

This is so heartbreaking

@SlackAlice1 I remember something similar a few weeks ago but I think it was in the US.

Actually the one I’m remembering was a few months ago. Horrendous story! https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/colorado-funeral-home-decaying-bodies-found

There are several stories locally (friend of a friend type thing) of people who have been informed their loved one who died last year and who they thought had been cremated are one of the people removed by the police to their mortuary. It’s heartbreaking. Hessle Road is not a wealthy area at all, it has strong historical connections to the decimated fishing industry. I imagine they had quite a lot of customers who could only afford direct cremation.

someone picked up the maritime team was involved. I don’t think this is overly sinister - we’re on the Humber estuary and sadly there are a lot of bodies that get washed up. I imagine that the maritime team are used to handling and identifying bodies who have not died recently.

As a pp said there's an article today online about the lady who had her husband's ashes made into jewellery for herself, her daughter and granddaughter only to discover police have found his body in a freezer.He died last July. Words don't often fail me but in this case it's hard to express how horrific this all is.

Can they dna test ashes? I’m assuming not. How horrific. They’ll never know who the ashes belong to like for that woman who has had a necklace made and now knows it’s not her husband. Maybe it’s not even human ash they gave her? Just log burning stove ash?

How heartbreaking for the people who received ashes they thought belonged to loved ones.

What on earth was their plan? I can only assume they were in a financial mess and were planning to eventually cremate the bodies.