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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,600 posts)
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 03:36 PM Oct 2018

Dozens more infant corpses found as Detroit police widen investigation of funeral homes

Source: Washington Post

Post Nation

Dozens more infant corpses found as Detroit police widen investigation of funeral homes

By Avi Selk
October 20 at 1:37 PM

Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced a “wide probe” into Michigan funeral homes Friday, after hidden caches of baby corpses were allegedly discovered at two unrelated businesses inside a week.

“This is deeply disturbing,” Craig said at a news conference, hours after police raided Perry Funeral Home and allegedly seized 63 fetus or infant bodies, more than half of which were packed together in unrefrigerated boxes. (1) “We want to understand the reasons: Is it financial gain? If so, how? Who knew or who else is involved in this?”

The raid came a week after an anonymous letter led investigators to an abandoned funeral home on the other side of central Detroit, where they allegedly found nearly a dozen infant corpses hidden in a ceiling. (2)
....

Avi Selk is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. He previously worked for the Dallas Morning News. Follow https://twitter.com/aviselk

(1) https://www.facebook.com/detroitpolice/videos/243389139691539/

(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/13/inside-an-abandoned-funeral-home-hidden-compartment-casket-dead-infants/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/20/dozens-more-infant-corpses-found-detroit-police-widens-investigation-funeral-homes/



Dozens more infant corpses found as Detroit police widen investigation of funeral homes


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Dozens more infant corpses found as Detroit police widen investigation of funeral homes (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2018 OP
Why aren't they burying the babies? Iggo Oct 2018 #1
It could be DownriverDem Oct 2018 #2
By "they" I mean the funeral homes that are being investigated. Iggo Oct 2018 #4
If you charge someone $5k to bury a body then you don't bury it then it is a profit. KWR65 Oct 2018 #9
Yes. From the Wash Post link: janx Oct 2018 #11
He could also be reselling the plots jmowreader Oct 2018 #19
Hard to know why DownriverDem Oct 2018 #3
That makes sense. bucolic_frolic Oct 2018 #7
WTH is the matter with people. I hope they can at least find their names. nt 7962 Oct 2018 #5
Awful. Revolting. Greed. steventh Oct 2018 #6
I could be way off here, so someone please correct me if I am off base. Socal31 Oct 2018 #8
Yes, I noticed this, too. End Of The Road Oct 2018 #12
I noticed. First it makes me wonder about the writer's obvious bias. Second, it makes me wonder... Hekate Oct 2018 #16
This is gruesome but janx Oct 2018 #17
Wayne State doesn't have a Veterinary school MichMan Oct 2018 #21
More informnation at the link I posted in janx Oct 2018 #18
Horrifying. janx Oct 2018 #10
So, the cynic in me makes me wonder how long and in how many other cities has this been going on... KCDebbie Oct 2018 #13
My reaction exactly. Just like lead in the drinking water. Nitram Oct 2018 #22
More info (local) here: janx Oct 2018 #14
Thanks for the links to the stories in the local newspaper, here and in reply #10. mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2018 #26
My corpse will be cremated. I don't understand the obsession with burying a preserved corpse in an Nitram Oct 2018 #15
In the eyes of the weirdos who brought us "christianity" Progressive Jones Oct 2018 #20
I want to feed a tree. Cremated or not. In the forest would be nice. Or public land demigoddess Oct 2018 #23
We all turn into the finest topsoil & forests. Sunlei Oct 2018 #24
After our blood is replaced with formaldehyde and other preservatives. Nitram Oct 2018 #27
A little research reveals that I was mistaken that the law requires preservation. Nitram Oct 2018 #28
Actually, demigoddess, my first choice is to be buried without preservation or a coffin at the base Nitram Oct 2018 #25
that is my choice also. Bury me deep and plant a sapling tree on top of me. demigoddess Oct 2018 #29

DownriverDem

(6,231 posts)
2. It could be
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:05 PM
Oct 2018

that they are trying to find the families of the babies. Also it's an ongoing investigation.

Iggo

(47,565 posts)
4. By "they" I mean the funeral homes that are being investigated.
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:11 PM
Oct 2018

What reason would they have for not burying the bodies of dead babies?

I'm not asking why bodies which are evidence in an ongoing investigation aren't being released to be buried.

janx

(24,128 posts)
11. Yes. From the Wash Post link:
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 05:08 PM
Oct 2018
Nevertheless, police opened a criminal investigation into the matter this week. Investigators then got a second tip, leading them to a second funeral home.

“A parent saw the story” about Cantrell in the news, Craig told reporters. “He told his attorney he wanted to go to the police.”

The Detroit News wrote that the tipsters were the parents of Alayah Davis, who died of respiratory failure minutes after she was born in late 2014.

The mother and father sued Perry Funeral Home in July, alleging that the company had claimed to bury Alayah and several other infants at a particular cemetery but had actually stored their bodies for years in a mortuary school morgue.

Perry went so far as to issue fraudulent death certificates for the infants, the parents alleged, and billed Medicaid and hospitals for funerals that were never performed.

DownriverDem

(6,231 posts)
3. Hard to know why
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:09 PM
Oct 2018

I've seen where someone said maybe the families didn't have the money to bury them. Because there are so many, it's hard to believe that could be why. I hope they get at the truth.

bucolic_frolic

(43,280 posts)
7. That makes sense.
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:36 PM
Oct 2018

Burial plots cost money. Unless there are paupers' cemeteries or sites. Or it could be more sinister. Abandoned infants, that kind of thing. Whoever used the ceiling as a gravesite probably figured no one would look, or they themselves would be long gone. As if they were thinking clearly.

steventh

(2,143 posts)
6. Awful. Revolting. Greed.
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:28 PM
Oct 2018

The only motive I can think of for not burying the babies is the funeral homes kept selling the same coffin over and over instead of burying the deceased babies in it. I hope there are severe penalties for the perpetrators.

How heartbreaking for the parents of these dead children.

Socal31

(2,484 posts)
8. I could be way off here, so someone please correct me if I am off base.
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 04:38 PM
Oct 2018

Does anyone notice how the article seamlessly blends "fetus" with "infant body", and then uses "infant corpses" exclusively after that? I was looking for a Kavanaugh by-line to be honest.

But then again I can't imagine why medical waste would be at a funeral home. I am not trying to be insensitive, I am genuinely in the dark as to what all of this is about.

Hekate

(90,788 posts)
16. I noticed. First it makes me wonder about the writer's obvious bias. Second, it makes me wonder...
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 07:35 PM
Oct 2018

...if local hospitals were sending miscarriages and abortions to the funeral homes because they were utilizing the crematoria -- it's just so many. Of course, other funeral homes and crematoria have fallen into criminally bad practices with adult bodies, and no one found out for years and years in those cases either.

Third, this is a gruesome and inexplicable mystery. I hope the cops get to the bottom of it. It's just too awful for words.

janx

(24,128 posts)
17. This is gruesome but
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 07:53 PM
Oct 2018

I don't think we can necessarily assume that because I think many of these were stillborn fetuses in very bad states of decay. The journalist probably didn't know quite how to refer to them. I'm not sure if even the experts could initially determine if these remains were babies born alive or stillborn fetuses, due to the decay.

There appears to be a connection between a hospital, the Perry Funeral Home, and Wayne State School of Veterinary Science. At one point at least, Gary Deak was storing these bodies at the university. Was the director of the Perry Funeral Home (Deak) connected to Cantrell? In an older, local article I posted, it was mentioned that he had "interests" in three funeral homes, but that might just be a coincidence.

janx

(24,128 posts)
14. More info (local) here:
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 06:16 PM
Oct 2018
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/10/19/detroit-police-widening-investigation-into-local-funeral-homes/1698282002/

This part is very weird:

Perry "obtained possession or embalmed the dead human bodies of the fetuses and infants without first being expressly directed or authorized to do so by a relative of the deceased persons or a person entitled to custody," the release said

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,600 posts)
26. Thanks for the links to the stories in the local newspaper, here and in reply #10.
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 10:22 AM
Oct 2018

I try to get a local source when I can, but all I had to work with when I posted was the story in the WaPo.

Reply #10:

Horrifying.

One of those articles mentioned a guy named Gary Deak, who is the director of Perry Funeral Home. Here is a sad article about how tough it was when he lost his wife.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/neal-rubin/2015/12/09/betsy-deak-perry-funeral-home-wayne-county-morgue/77074670/

Nitram

(22,869 posts)
15. My corpse will be cremated. I don't understand the obsession with burying a preserved corpse in an
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 07:11 PM
Oct 2018

expensive waterproof coffin. Are we preserving bodies for the Resurrection?

Progressive Jones

(6,011 posts)
20. In the eyes of the weirdos who brought us "christianity"
Sat Oct 20, 2018, 10:08 PM
Oct 2018

cremation was probably something the "pagans" did, therefore, "Gawd" might be offended by the practice.
The "rapture" fantasy probably also plays a part.

Me, I'll be dust in the wind...

demigoddess

(6,644 posts)
23. I want to feed a tree. Cremated or not. In the forest would be nice. Or public land
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 04:44 PM
Oct 2018

plant me and then add tree on top.

Sunlei

(22,651 posts)
24. We all turn into the finest topsoil & forests.
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 04:57 PM
Oct 2018

Like trillions of animals & billions of people before us!


All living things & all of us are just big old bags of fertilizer.
Sunlei 10/2018

Nitram

(22,869 posts)
27. After our blood is replaced with formaldehyde and other preservatives.
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 10:22 AM
Oct 2018

"Formaldehyde is featured on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of the top 10 most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalming_chemicals

Nitram

(22,869 posts)
28. A little research reveals that I was mistaken that the law requires preservation.
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 10:27 AM
Oct 2018

"No state explicitly requires that a person be embalmed. While states differ on the language, the general intent is the same in all states. Human remains be "disposed of" within 24 hours through burial or cremation. If not disposed, then human remains must be preserved. Methods of preservation include both refrigeration and embalming. Refrigeration can include ice, dry ice, or mechanical refrigeration."

https://www.northwoodscasket.com/northwoodscasket/2014/10/27/natural-burial-the-law-are-there-legal-matters-regarding-natural-burial

Nitram

(22,869 posts)
25. Actually, demigoddess, my first choice is to be buried without preservation or a coffin at the base
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 10:19 AM
Oct 2018

of a tree. For now, I blieve that is illegal. I read "The American Way of Death" years ago, where I learned how the National Funeral Directors Association lobbied for laws that required people to be processed by a mortuary before cremation or burial.

demigoddess

(6,644 posts)
29. that is my choice also. Bury me deep and plant a sapling tree on top of me.
Sat Oct 27, 2018, 07:13 PM
Oct 2018

without coffin or any preservation. I hate formaldehyde. it is in a lot of our perfumes and gives me a migraine. It is poison(literally) and destroys our planet. Why we make it and use it is beyond me.

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