Update to Cantrell Funeral Home scandal in Detroit: More than 370 bodies found dating back to 1996

Hoo wee, this story stinks.

What happens to nearly 400 human remains at Cantrell?:

[A]shes of more than 370 bodies, nearly two dozen of which appear to be military veterans, ... were abandoned at Cantrell in the spring. ...

A new owner, who purchased the building about a month ago, said the interior smelled horrible. The owner had removed four dumpsters of garbage as he started renovating the space to turn it into a community center. ...

[Brian] Joseph [the owner of Verheyden Funeral Homes in Grosse Pointe Park], who arrived at Cantrell even before the state investigators, was let in by the owner.

The state contacted Joseph, [Joseph] said, because in the spring, as Cantrell's financial and regulatory problems became evident, he had offered to help the operator, Raymond Cantrell II, who had inherited the business after his father died in 2016.

Cantrell then asked Joseph to honor more than 500 of his pre-arranged funeral contracts.

The money paid on the contracts is held by a third party and Joseph said he does not profit from them. He agreed, he said, because Cantrell's father had been a contemporary of the former owner of his funeral home, and he believes that he has a duty to help others in need.

In April, the state suspended Cantrell's license, citing "deplorable, unsanitary conditions." Among the problems authorities found were six decomposing bodies — three men, two women and a male fetus — in the funeral home. 

Again, to help, Joseph quietly arranged for the bodies to be buried during the summer at Mount Olivet, which donated space and services. Santieu Vaults in Livonia donated the burial vaults which protect bodies while in the ground.

Joseph is now trying to help identify the hundreds of containers holding cremated remains, some of which appear to go back to 1996. Many of the remains have names with the date the person died, Joseph said, but finding relatives and loved ones is a challenge. ...

"It's a horrible situation," said John Desmond of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors, summing up the problems with remains that were hidden and left behind. "This is the most egregious behavior that I have ever heard of in my 50 years of being licensed in the state of Michigan."

Police find many more infant bodies in another Detroit funeral home as scandal expands

This story is the macabre bookend to the grisly Kermit Gosnell infanticide case in Philly.

63 remains of fetuses removed from Perry Funeral Home in Detroit:

[T]wo attorneys said they believe many more infants’ remains may be found in the improper possession of the Perry Funeral Home, perhaps as many as 200, based on their research of log books kept by the Wayne State University School of Mortuary Science. The funeral home routinely deposited infant remains at the WSU school’s morgue, then failed to follow up with parents’ wishes for the remains to be used in research by the WSU School of Medicine, they said.

“I’m really wondering where all the rest of them are,” Cieslak said late Friday. The lawsuit filed by the two charges that Perry may have fraudulently billed Medicaid, as well as the Detroit Medical Center, for burials it never performed. The lawyers said they can’t estimate how much money might be involved, “but it must be significant,” Parks said.

"We already have people calling us, after seeing the news, saying 'this happened to me,'" he said.

Police find infant bodies hidden in Detroit black-owned funeral home, closed in April 2018 after death of founder in 2016

Police: 11 infant bodies found in ceiling of former funeral home

The badly decomposed bodies of 11 infants were found in the ceiling of a former funeral home on Detroit's east side, Detroit police said. The remains were found  late Friday afternoon by state investigators just hours after they received an anonymous letter explaining how to find the bodies carefully hidden inside the false ceiling, Detroit police said. The bodies had been hidden inside the former Cantrell Funeral Home at 10400 Mack Avenue at Garland, about 10 blocks east of the Indian Village neighborhood. The funeral home was closed by state authorities in April after they found numerous violations of state law. ... Overall, state officials had charged the operators of Cantrell Funeral Home with "fraud, deceit, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross negligence in the practice of mortuary science," according to a report issued in April about the decision to close the business.

From the 2016 death notice of Raymond Cantrell, here:

Raymond Cantrell Sr., Founder of Cantrell Funeral Home, one of the largest Black-owned Funeral Homes in Detroit, Michigan.  Born July 19, 1920, Raymond is a native of Georgia (Douglas County) born into a family with 5 other siblings. Raymond attended and graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta GA.  He received a scholarship to Morehouse College (Atlanta) to study medicine and remained there for two years. ...

During the early 1950s Raymond had seen a need for additional choices in funeral homes in the Detroit eastside community. On completion of his Mortuary Science Degree (Department of Mortuary Science Wayne State University - Class of 1952) he soon established himself as a provider of compassionate yet personal funeral services. Armed with a morticians license Raymond freelanced intermittently working for the Diggs and Anderson Funeral Homes while concurrently maintaining his relief-man position at Ford Motor Company (5 days a week) and operating Ray’s Barber shop (6 days a week).

With some capital to his name in the early 50s, Raymond purchased property on Detroit’s Eastside (Montclair and Kercheval).  

Raymond’s unique approach to funeral service provision and caring attention in meeting each grieving family’s unique needs stimulated and increased demand for his services. After a few years together with an enviable professional reputation, demand for ‘Cantrell’s’ funeral service provision was at a growing and sustainable level and Raymond resigned from his position at the Ford Motor Company and closed his barbershop business to focus on his funeral home.

Cantrell Funeral Home relocated to substantially larger premises at 10400 Mack Avenue (its current location) on January 1st, 1964. The move to larger premises enhanced Raymond’s position as a provider of compassionate and dignified funeral services and strengthened his goal to provide families ‘a personalized funeral service while meeting their unique financial needs. ...

Visitation: Saturday, November 5, 2016 From 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm & Sunday, November 6, 2016  From 10:00 am - 3:00 pm; Cantrell Funeral Home, Inc., 10400 Mack Ave., Detroit, MI 48214