US
Michigan Funeral Home Owners To Face Criminal Charges After Infant and Fetus Remains Found Hidden
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Police will charge the owners of a Detroit funeral home after the remains of 10 fetuses and one infant were discovered in the building, authorities said Monday.
“In 41-and-1/2 years in policing, this is first time I’ve heard of anything like this,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Monday, according to the New York Daily News.
No one has been arrested in the case, but Craig said the Cantrell Funeral Home owners will face charges.
Raymond Cantrell was the last person to own the funeral home while it was operating. Its license was suspended in April after violations including decomposed embalmed bodies were discovered in the funeral home, according to the NY Daily News.
UPDATE: This is the ceiling where the bodies of 11 infants and stillborns were found at the former Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit.
Investigators are now working to identify the remains.
MORE: https://t.co/ZznXcFp5QM pic.twitter.com/8Ji4DuI42a
— WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) October 13, 2018
Ten of the bodies found Friday were fetus remains stored in a single box. One full-term infant was in a coffin, Craig said, according to the NY Daily News. The remains were concealed in a drop-down ceiling.
“They were definitely hidden,” Craig said. “The way they were placed in ceiling, one would not have readily discovered them.”
Some of the fetus remains appeared to be stillborn and were in a mummified condition, reported the Detroit Free Press.
Many of the remains had “some kind of label from a hospital that could lead to them being identified,” reported the Detroit Free Press.
“We do have names for some of the remains and we’re going to try to contact the families,” Detroit police Lt. Brian Bowser said according to the Detroit Free Press.
An anonymous letter, likely from a former employee at Cantrell Funeral Home, tipped off police about the hidden bodies. The man who bought the building, Naveed Syed, plans to turn it into a community center, reported the NY Daily News.
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