The bodies of more than 50 people were found decomposing in an unrefrigerated area of a Chicago funeral home run by a couple who previously operated a crematory that was shut down over similar allegations, the authorities said.
The Chicago police were called to help with a license investigation at the South Chicago Chapel Funeral Home on Thursday and found human remains inside, the Police Department said.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said a team of investigators and forensic pathologists went to the funeral home and found the bodies in “various states of decomposition.”
“MEO staff is assessing the conditions of the remains, searching for documentation regarding identification of the decedents as well as death certificates,” the office said in a statement.
It was unclear how long the bodies had been at the funeral home. It was also unclear what prompted the investigation.
The Chicago Police Department said the case was under investigation. No arrests have been made.
Johanna and Clark Morgan operate the South Chicago Chapel Funeral Home where the bodies were found, Susana Mendoza, the Illinois state comptroller, which licenses funeral homes in the state, said in a statement on Friday.
The Morgans did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Ms. Mendoza said the couple had “egregious past practices” while operating the Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights. That site was shut down last year after investigators found multiple bodies stacked on top of each other inside inoperable refrigerated trailers and coolers, Ms. Mendoza said at the time.
“Horrified. Again,” Ms. Mendoza said in the statement. “The discovery of decomposing remains waiting to be laid to rest this week at a South Side funeral home is heartbreaking and an abomination.”
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said it took swift action to suspend the license of Ms. Morgan, who is listed as the registered funeral director, after the bodies were discovered at the funeral home.
In suspending Ms. Morgan’s license, state regulators wrote in a disciplinary filing that her “continued practice is a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare due to respondent allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions” that included rodent infestation.
Mr. Morgan previously held a funeral director and embalmer intern license, but it was revoked in 2024 because he was operating on an expired license and had engaged in “unprofessional conduct,” the agency said.
The discovery is the latest in a series of similar cases at funeral homes and crematories across the country in recent years.
In those cases, operators have been charged with storing bodies improperly or failing to carry out cremations and burials that families had paid for.
In February, Jon Hallford, an owner of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., was sentenced to 40 years in prison after investigators found that nearly 200 decomposing bodies were stored improperly and families had received fake ashes.
In June, the owners of another Colorado funeral home, Davis Mortuary in Pueblo, were arrested after dozens of bodies in different stages of decomposition were discovered behind a hidden door.
Mack Liederman contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
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