The discovery of more than 50 deceased individuals reportedly being kept in deplorable and decomposing conditions at a Chicago funeral home is horrifying, and the families of these individuals deserve immediate answers. What makes this situation even more alarming is that this does not appear to be an isolated incident involving previously unknown operators.
The individuals associated with South Chicago Chapel were also associated with Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, which was permanently shut down after regulators uncovered serious allegations involving improperly stored human remains and hundreds of cremated remains that had never been returned to families. Cook County ultimately assumed responsibility for 504 sets of cremated remains from that operation.
Now, barely more than a year later, Cook County is again being called upon to respond to another horrific situation involving more than 50 deceased individuals and businesses associated with the same operators.
That demands more than outrage. It demands accountability.
The public deserves to know what regulators knew, when they knew it, what inspections were performed after the Heights Crematory scandal, and why another facility associated with these operators apparently continued handling deceased human beings without these conditions being discovered sooner.
Illinois law gives the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation broad authority to investigate funeral-directing activity and inspect funeral establishments. State law also requires an inspection when IDFPR receives a complaint against a funeral-director licensee and requires an inspection within 10 business days when a complaint concerns mishandling or misidentification of human remains.
We need to know whether complaints were made, whether those statutory requirements were followed, and whether regulators ever inspected every facility associated with these operators after the Heights Crematory investigation.
Cook County’s Medical Examiner is not the regulatory agency responsible for policing funeral homes. However, Cook County taxpayers and personnel have now twice been required to deal with the consequences of apparent failures within the death-care system. That gives this Board an obligation to ask questions.
I will be requesting a comprehensive briefing from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office and asking state regulatory officials for a complete timeline of complaints, inspections, disciplinary actions and interagency communications concerning South Chicago Chapel, Heights Crematory and the individuals associated with both businesses.
If our current laws allow someone associated with a death-care operation that has been shut down for serious misconduct to simply continue operating another establishment handling human remains without enhanced inspection and oversight, then the law needs to change.
The deceased deserve dignity. Their families deserve certainty. And the public deserves a regulatory system capable of recognizing warning signs before another tragedy occurs, not after dozens or hundreds of families have already been harmed.
Commissioner Sean M. Morrison
Cook County Board, 17th District
