Bodies of 11 people, including infants, found rotting inside funeral home
The owner of a Los Angeles funeral home allowed 11 deceased bodies to sit and rot inside the funeral home, which included the bodies of children, officials said.
According to officials, the remains were found “in various stages of decay and mummification” on two different occasions over the past year.
Authorities discovered the putrefied bodies after they received several complaints from family members of the deceased bodies that were found.
Mark Allen, the former owner of the Mark B. Allen Mortuary and Cremations Services in Sun Valley, now faces 22 criminal charges for failing to properly maintain and bury non-cremated human remains, according to the LA City Attorney’s Office. Since these findings were discovered, the funeral home has shut down.
That shut down happened because of a petition filed by the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. In the petition, it states the bodies were found in April 2021 in a storage unit that had a temperature of about 60 degrees when one of the agency workers previously visited the mortuary.
The petition goes on to say that this agency worker observed a “swarm of flies buzzing around” the unit’s exhaust fan, as well as noticing a “foul and overwhelmingly strong” smell of decay.
LA City Attorney Mike Feuer released a statement saying, “We’re fighting to get justice for these families in this incredibly sad and shocking situation.”
Allen is facing some stiff penalties for his actions. He faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison and $110,000 in fines, as it would be $10,000 for each body for violating California Health and Safety Codes.
Besides it being against health and safety codes, it is also a disgrace for the grieving families. Feuer said, “Eleven people died, including very young children, and the funeral director hired to compassionately prepare the bodies for burial allegedly just let them rot, with neither the decency nor the dignity that all our loved ones deserve. Their deaths are one tragedy, and this alleged monstrous mistreatment is a second tragedy.”