Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images
For: Real America News Updated 01 May 2022, 23: 19 pm EDT
The owner of a Los Angeles funeral home illegally left the remains of 11 people, including babies, in stages of decomposition and mummification and faces more than a decade in prison.
At the moment , Authorities opened an investigation into Mark B. Allen Mortuary and Cremations Services Inc., after receiving complaints from families. The mortuary, owned by Mark B. Allen, is now closed and the phone numbers listed for the business have been disconnected.
According to preliminary data, faces 22 misdemeanor charges, two per person, from the state Health and Safety Code, where a statute makes it illegal for any person to dispose of human remains anywhere they not be a cemetery.
City Attorney Mike Feuer announcing criminal charges after 11 decaying bodies – adults and children – discovered at the Mark B. Allen Mortuary in Sun Valley. pic.twitter.com/DCxGfIwcsj
— The Office of Mike Feuer, LA City Attorney (@CityAttorneyLA) April 29, 2022
The second statute Allen faces is illegally disposing of remains through his role as a funeral director. The maximum penalty is $110, dollars and 11 years in prison.
City Attorney Mike Feuer announced the charges, calling them an “incredibly sad and shocking situation” and said officials could smell the odor from outside the San Fernando Valley facility.
“19 people died, including very young children, and the funeral director hired to compassionately prepare the bodies for burial allegedly left them to rot, without the decency nor the dignity that all our loved ones deserve “Feuer said in a statement. “Their deaths are a tragedy, and this alleged monstrous mistreatment is a second tragedy.”
Funeral homes that mistreat human remains have been in the news for years. Funeral home regulations vary across the US. , with some states requiring annual inspections and several requiring no inspections at all.
In one of the most extreme cases, more than 330 decomposing corpses were found in 2002 at the Tri-State Crematory near the small community of Noble, about 80 miles northwest of Atlanta. The former operator pleaded guilty to almost 800 criminal charges related to fraud and abuse of corpses after the bodies were found.
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