On October 27, authorities discovered 18 decomposing bodies while serving an eviction notice at a Georgia funeral home and arrested the owner.
A press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that Chris Johnson, 39, is being charged with seventeen counts of abusing a dead body.
On Saturday, October 26, deputies from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office were giving Johnson Funeral Home a notice to vacate. Investigators say they found skeletal remains of people in “various stages of decomposition.”
Investigators say that “more than one child” was among the 18 bodies. A dog and a cat were also found in the cooler with the body parts of a person. The hazardous materials team from the Douglas Fire Department was called to the scene.
As Johnson was being arrested, the warrant said he had “knowingly and willfully defaced a dead body while the body is being prepared for burial, showing, or cremation in a funeral establishment.”
The statement also said that the director of the funeral home was “willfully negligent in his duties as a funeral home director and intentionally disregard for proper storage,” which meant that the bodies of 17 people were kept for too long, causing severe disfigurement.
Johnson was not given bail at a hearing.
The Funeral Home Owner Ran For County Coroner Earlier This Year
Johnson ran for the job of Coffee County coroner earlier this year. Even so, Brandon Musgrove beat him, getting just under 29% of the vote, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Johnson said after the election that he planned to run for office again in four years.
Johnson said, “I will use the next four years to grow with all of you.”
The owners of a funeral home in Colorado pleaded guilty to fraud last month, and this case comes after them. This was because 200 dead bodies were found at their business, Return to Nature Funeral Home.
The US Justice Department says that Jon and Carie Hallford did not properly bury or cremate the bodies that were given to them. Instead of ashes, they gave urns full of dry concrete mix to families who were grieving.
They also abused a $800,000 pandemic business loan by using it for personal things like vacations, cosmetic surgery, and cryptocurrency investments.
Reports from investigators said that the Colorado Springs business was so dirty that a paramedic who was looking at it got a rash and had to go to the hospital.
