The proprietor of a Jeffersonville, Indiana, funeral residence pleaded responsible Friday to over 40 felony counts of theft, having did not render the after-death providers for which he had been paid.

Law enforcement uncovered 31 unrefrigerated and decomposing our bodies and the ashes of 17 cremated folks on the Lankford Funeral Home in July 2022. 

The investigation into the power was launched after the Clark County Coroner’s Office reported a powerful odor coming from the constructing.

Some of the our bodies throughout the facility had been there since March 2022.

Owner Randy Lankford was charged with over 40 counts of theft, having did not have accomplished funeral providers and failed to show over the ashes to the folks’s family members.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita had Lankford’s license to function suspended in August 2022.

“Grieving families must be able to trust that their loved ones’ remains will be respectfully and properly handled,” Attorney General Rokita mentioned in an announcement on the time.

Moves at the moment are being made to revoke Lankford’s license altogether in order that he will be unable to renew work as a funeral director going ahead.

Lankford faces a proposed sentence of 4 years in jail with eight years of home arrest and should pay $46,000 in restitution to 53 households.

Some victims had a number of family members contained in the funeral facility and have been perturbed on the phrases of Lankford’s proposed sentence.

“I’m just shocked really, speechless. It doesn’t really give me hope for the justice system that’s for sure,” Derrick Kessinger, who had entrusted the funeral care of his father, his fiance, and her father to Lankford, instructed WDRB-TV.

Mr. Kessinger did finally obtain their stays.

Lankford himself has not but addressed the victims of theft, however his lawyer indicated that he would accomplish that at his sentencing listening to on June 23.

“Mr. Lankford truly does feel very remorseful. He’s very remorseful and he’s going to make a statement at the sentencing hearing to address all these victims, clearly can’t take back what happened and he’s accepted responsibility and hopes it brings some closure to these victims,” Lankford’s lawyer, Tyler Miller, instructed the Jeffersonville-based News and Tribune newspaper.

Since the police bust on the funeral residence, a minimum of 28 civil fits have been filed by victims in opposition to Lankford, all of that are nonetheless pending.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com