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?

Regarding viewing a loved one’s body.

In my experience as a Roman Catholic it’s still the norm for a loved one to be taken home to the house for the night before being taken to the Church overnight prior to a Requim Mass. We’re Scottish but prior to 1850 the family was Irish.

My grandparents died, separately, in the 1980s. We had both coffins at home for a few days. South Wales.

The ashes are kept at the crematorium, the person arranging the funeral usually arranges for the ashes to be transferred back to the family, funeral directors place of worship, but the funeral directors can collect them for the family and act as the go between.

But the costs for crematorium will have been paid for by the families, there’s no reason for not being able to cover cremation fees - if costs aren’t adding up then they should’ve raised their fees.

Just curious how that works? Like do you seat them upright in the car on the way back or put them in the boot? Genuine question.

I had my first experience with death recently and actually I realised getting up close with their corpse wasn't freaky or creepy when it's your loved one. But when they'd embalmed and drawn makeup on her like a different person it was scary.

Debt involved maybe. I don't think it was just greed because based on the reporting, who could live with that godawful mass of decomposing bodies stench? Or maybe I'm too naive?

They will travel in their coffin in either a hearse (definitely to the funeral) or a private ambulance.

Of course not, the deceased is taken to the house in the coffin and placed in a room where families can pay their respects. Why on earth would you think they place a body in a car or the boot.

I haven’t seen anyone suggest that empty coffins were cremated. I agree that it sounds more likely they took the money for the direct cremations but didn’t do them and then couldn’t work out how to deal with the bodies, how grim.

Don’t be ridiculous they’d be transported in a coffin of course, or ambulance if they were in attendance.

It works differently in my "ridiculous" country :-)

Well why on earth would you bring a dead body corpse home in the first place (whether in a coffin or not)?!

If my question as someone not from that culture was weird to you, surely you can understand it's because the practice I was asking about sounds weird as hell to me...

I think the strangest bit of the story is that quite a few of the reportings have said that the maritime protection unit is involved in the investigation.

No they're self regulated, though they can voluntarily sign up to tthe National Association of Funeral Directors which has a "code"

Thoughts are with all the families, and doubtlesss there's a lot more yet to come out about this, including why funerals were held on the premises rather than at a crematorium/church as is usual - it's common in the USA but not over here AFAIK

@YetMoreNewBeginnings I'm trying to put this sensitively, but with Hull being coastal the Maritime unit may be involved in investigating how the dead really were disposed of

Could be wrong but perhaps the level of decomposition involved.

Do you sit them in the back of a car or put them in the boot. How would an upright body fit in the coffin afterwards. Is there any culture that does this?

I am hoping this is not the case but has anyone considered that they may have been receiving cash not to cremate the bodies?

Maybe things went too far.

Awful though it is there must be more than one Jimmy Saville type…

It's done so that the deceased is taking part in the wake.

In countries such as Ireland the wake generally takes place in the house the night before the funeral. The deceased is, where possible, in an open coffin and the family and friends can gather round to talk to them and pay their last respects, often with a drink in hand too. It is traditional there to say goodbye to them in their home if at all possible, and for them to be considered to be bidding farewell to the place they have called home. Don't knock it just because you have not heard of it. It isn't unknown.

Of course they are not transported in the boot of a car. They are in the coffin.

Yes that would also make sense - helping to locate further bodies. I was thinking they may have specialists used to dealing with very decomposed bodies but perhaps I’m wrong here.

My aunt wanted to be at home. My cousins honoured her wish. It may be less common than it used to be but it’s not unusual enough to be remarkable here anyway (Scotland)

But they were storing bodies, not ashes. And people had been given ashes, and now their loved one has been found still there. Appalling.

Presumably people given ashes were given old ones that hasn’t been collected.

We don't cart dead bodies around to people's homes in the first place... and in answer to your question, yes, there are cultures where the deceased is positioned upright or in a chair

I assume the plan was that once their got out of their financial difficulties , they would would clear their existing debts at the crematorium .

Then they would arrange more cremations for the bodies they had stored. Presumably they would have to pay upfront as they had a history of being bad payers.

So they would need a large amount in cash, which they probably didn’t have . I’m guessing that they used the money paid by bereaved families to pay their other revenue costs ( staff wages, rent, taxes, insurance , vehicle costs ).

I might be wrong but I’m assuming that just they are incompetent at running their business, they got into debt and it all just snowballed. That seems more likely Than they were evil criminals hiding murder victims etc

Im not excusing anything, of course it’s awful for the families.

Yes, I asked a respectful question (while suppressing comments on how weird I found that practice), got some slightly rude answers. There are cultures where the deceased is positioned in a chair so it's just ignorance to think only the British way makes sense...