To not understand the Hull funeral directors story?

[GameOfJones]

I've just seen an update to the news story and it sounds absolutely terrible.

35 bodies now identified at the funeral directors, some of whom have relatives that believed they had already been cremated and had been given their ashes. It sounds so upsetting.

What I can't understand is what on Earth was going on? I sort of get they may have been taking the money to cremate bodies then not actually doing so.....but then what the heck were they planning to do with the bodies they had in storage?

I assume it’s to do with direct cremation, I’ve never really been comfortable with that being pushed as a mainstream option, I felt something like this would happen eventually.

This makes no sense. Apart from the gang burn theory. That’s crazy but would make at-least some kind of sense

Live locally, Hull is a small city and word spreads. The gossip is that the business owners were not professional people or very good at running a business. Eg sold items on their personal FB accounts where the pictures were obviously taken in the yard at the business. They had not paid their bills at the local crematoria, so were having to use one further away that also recently stopped accepting their business due to unpaid bills.

I reckon it’s likely that they didn’t start out to deliberately defraud people but panicked when the red bills came and they couldn’t actually deliver cremation services any more. That would seem to be the point things slid from cock up to criminal actions. Horrific for their clients, and that story in the Sun does not help the bereaved families.

Oh god. Just incompetence. Awful!

This is what u thought too @ChangeIing

What I don't understand is if there are so many bodies not stored, embalmed or cooled properly in the premises in various stages of decomposition, isn't that like a horror house? Surely the smell would give it away.

I'm confused too about what on earth they thought they were going to do with so many poorly stored bodies that they had accumulated.

It is grotesque. I really feel for the families involved. Even if their loved one wasn't amongst the 35 bodies removed, there would still be a huge question mark over whether or not they actually got the right ashes back etc.?

Horrendous.

I'm based in Ireland so maybe funerals are different, for example we tend to burry someone roughly within three days of their death whereas I recall a relative of my mother's funeral was a few weeks later but correct me if I'm wrong.

What I find strange is...wouldn't the family have been there for closing the coffin after the removal/viewing? Also the family usually then accompanied the coffin to the crematorium.

I also suspect it's a case of poor business practices leading to crematoriums refusing to take more bodies from them because they hadn't paid their bills, and them fobbing relatives off with random ashes hoping to raise the money to work their way through cremating them all at a later date.

Re poor storage, we've had a situation where the best way I can put it is correct storage had clearly not been continuous. It was impossible to know if it was down to the original morgue, moving around in storage whilst being held for an exceptionally long time by the coroners office, or the funeral director they were eventually released to. It made an already awful situation that was dragged out for over a year even more difficult.

I'm confused too about what on earth they thought they were going to do with so many poorly stored bodies that they had accumulated.

I know. In a fucked-up way, it's like the plot of a bad-taste comedy film. Those poor families.

How on earth do you store 35 bodies long term?

But what we're they going to do with the bodies?

No, I believe in the uk this isn't common. We often view bodies 1-2 days before funeral. Not always day of.

Funerals aren't always held at crematorium. Often the staff take them there unaccompanied by family. This is considered a direct cremation and is a LOT cheaper.

Bit different in the uk. People don't necessarily view and I've never heard of a family being present when the coffin is closed. Unless someone on here knows differently but that's my understanding in general. We also don't have a 'wake' which I understood is traditional in Ireland?

I didn't realise that thw funeral directors don't actually just contact the relatives to let them know that the ashes are ready to be collected. Why don't they? Is it out of respect for not wanting to contact people that are still grieving and maybe not ready to collect them?

Our local director let us know when the ashes were ready, discussed any type of box we wanted and then very respectfully delivered them by hand home. Dad was then buried in the garden and a lilac tree planted.

This is just too awful. My Mum died last year and to find out weeks after that she was still in storage would have been terrible. The poor families, just shocking.

Well I don't live in the UK, so it might be different there, but in my experience they tell you when the ashes will be available to be collected and it's up to you from there on.

I’m in the uk and every funeral I’ve been to has a wake unless they don’t want it. No Irish connections.

This is all so, so sad. I'm wondering, as this all appears to be about finances, are the police also looking at charity contributions that are collected by the funeral director in memory of the deceased?
I ask this because when my parents died we requested family flowers only but donations to a nominated charity that my parents had supported. A few weeks later we received a letter from the charity thanking us so we know the funeral directors had sent the money. But I'm wondering if this is the case with the poor families in Hull?
Also, most funeral directors offer funeral plans. I wonder how these have been handled by this funeral director and whether people who have paid for them have lost their money?
I really feel for these families . . . our last two family funerals have been cremations and afterwards the ashes have been sprinkled in a favourite place of the deceased. For the Hull families, if they have sprinkled ashes, they will never get the answers they long for and so truly deserve

This is the only version that would make some kind of sense with nobody else being at the crematorium to know if the cremation happened. .

Even if they were not caring who was cremated there would have to be a body in the casket or it would be noticed and you’d save nothing by sending an empty coffin to be cremated.

The article in the sun suggests they will be

My thoughts are they were going to have the bodies cremated once they’d cleared their feet bills-wise and just didn’t manage it.

If they offered direct cremation the crematorium presumably wouldn’t even know if someone was being cremated a few weeks or months late.

I think PP might be referring to bringing the body home for a spell which is uncommon here. Not the ‘party’ after the funeral which is normal to have.

I would guess things got away from them both financially and in other ways, probably due to some change in the life of the main owner or owners (mental health, alcohol, illness).