Arrests at a funeral directors in Hull.

I haven’t heard about that, lemsip. What did this young mother say?

It’s sounding as though bodies were not cremated as relatives believed, but surely that could only happen with an unattended cremation? Otherwise the crematorium would be booked, there would be a coffin for all to see.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13184927/families-hull-legacy-funeral-directors-fear-ashes-not-dead-loved-ones.html

read the article.

heartbreaking

Thanks lemsip. That’s shocking. Why would people have a funeral service at this run-down funeral parlour rather than at the crematorium? A money saving offer perhaps. This will have a lot of people worrying about ‘direct cremations’ I imagine because the cremations in question would have been, if they took place, unattended.

Germanshepherdsmum

Thanks lemsip. That’s shocking. Why would people have a funeral service at this run-down funeral parlour rather than at the crematorium? A money saving offer perhaps. This will have a lot of people worrying about ‘direct cremations’ I imagine because the cremations in question would have been, if they took place, unattended.

Looking at their website it was £1,000 cheaper to have a funeral service in their onsite Chapel compared to a service at a Church or Crematorium Chapel and £2,000 cheaper to have an unattended funeral.

Welbeck, good advice. And not only for gossip in the media, but also for when I am chatting it is good or me to remember that Chinese whisper can set up conspiracy theories and harmful rumours.

"be aware, that as people have been arrested in connection with a criminal investigation, we should be v circumspect in any comments.
really, best to avoid comments until the matter is concluded in the judicial process.
this forum is not like chatter around the water-cooler; it is published material for the purposes of the strict liability rule, section 1, contempt of court act 1981." (Welbeck)

Germanshepherdsmum

Thanks lemsip. That’s shocking. Why would people have a funeral service at this run-down funeral parlour rather than at the crematorium? A money saving offer perhaps. This will have a lot of people worrying about ‘direct cremations’ I imagine because the cremations in question would have been, if they took place, unattended.

I thought funeral directors organise the services at the crematorium (or burial whichever the family's wishes)?

They don't actually cremate the bodies at the funeral parlour.

With organisations like Pure Cremation they remove the deceased's body, then return the ashes to the family if desired.

I have never heard of a funeral service at a funeral parlour before. It seems this company offered that facility, followed by an unattended cremation which their website says might take place out of the area. Why would that be, why would the local crem not be used? I can understand people taking the cheapest option - this seems to be a poor area - and now they will of course (quite wrongly) be blaming themselves if something went wrong. Terribly sad, so many in distress and awaiting answers.

News Update
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13187737/Police-say-1-000-people-called-hotline-concerns-funeral-firm.html

The bodies of 35 people and the suspected ashes of a number of others have been recovered by police investigating a funeral directors' firm over 'concern for care of the deceased'.

Thanks lemsip. How awful. I believe it’s rarely possible to identify cremated ashes. I can’t imagine how people who have arranged their loved ones’ funerals with this company must be feeling, with the possibility of never having certainty about what happened. Poor, poor people who were trying to do their best.

shocking isn't it!

lemsip

shocking isn't it!

It's awful.

I have sometimes wondered if, even in the best organised places, people do get their own loved one's ashes back. How would you ever know? You just have to trust.

Yes, you have to trust. Each of my dogs has had an individual cremation and ashes returned. In each case the pet crematorium had been visited and approved by the vet. The website was reassuring. I can only trust that they did what I asked for.

Germansheperdsmum where I live many funeral services take place at the Funeral Parlour in a designated 'chapel'. (room)
The coffin is thereafter removed to the graveyard or the crematorium accompanied by mourners.

That’s interesting. I guess being accompanied is the important thing - the funeral services offered by this company were followed by an unattended cremation.

Very sadly a body was found in the City mortuary in Hull and identified as a soldier who had died in Police custody 13 years previously.
The family thought they had buried him.
It is not known who was actually buried.
How such a blunder could be made is beyond me.

Dear God. Presumably there will have to be an exhumation. I cannot imagine the grief. I tend family graves knowing who lie in them.

update.

Grieving widow who had husband's ashes turned into jewellery is told police have found his body in scandal-hit funeral home freezer - as officers record 1,000 calls from concerned relatives and remove 35 corpses
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13190037/widow-husbands-ashes-jewellery-police-funeral-home-freezer.html

this is so awful and distressing that I won't be posting again.

it was so unbelievable that I decided to add the links, it being all over tv news.

There are so many adverts for unattended cremations. Send the bodies through on a conveyor belt and return a pot of ashes, all done on the cheap. A charter for unscrupulous businesses.

I am so glad that the only funerals I have known have been attended, with a service followed by cremation and the labelled ashes returned

This is devastating news for many

I haven’t been able to work out what potential crime the police are looking into, and best not to speculate, as GSmum says above. It must be very distressing for the families of the deceased.

I went to make a last visit to my parents when they were in their coffins, and we had an attended funeral the following day in each case. I would never have wanted an unattended funeral anyway, it was my way of celebrating their lives and a way to say goodbye alongside other family members who also loved them.

PamQS

I haven’t been able to work out what potential crime the police are looking into, and best not to speculate, as GSmum says above. It must be very distressing for the families of the deceased.

The latest link posted by lemsip talks of a woman who thought her husband had been cremated, but his body has been found in a freezer at the funeral home. A total of 35 bodies have been removed and are being identified. The charges are preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body and fraud. No speculation required.

i think the problem was that this company had built up debts and was not paying the bills, so crematoria were no longer prepared to accept new referrals from them until previous bills had been paid.

This meant they had to keep the bodie on their premises until they could afford to get them cremated and I would imagine that was a bit hit and miss and, as what so often happens, when, compamies have a problem and try juggling balls (so to speak) to try to keep everything running is that sooner or later they fail to catch one of the balls and the whole lot bounce all over the room.

The families paying for the service at the undertakers chapel/funeral room had no way of knowing that their loved one's remains were not being cremated and i do wonder what the ashes really were.

Crematoria grind ashes into very fine mix and it would not be difficult to create convincing cremation ashes from all other kinds of ashes - wood, (animal) bones, coal or coke. Burnt in a stove and ground finely, they would probably be indistinguishable.

A close family member works at a crematorium, and I can assure anyone who is worried that the ashes they receive back aren't those of their loved ones, this isn't possible, as the whole process is closely monitored and the deceased person's body tracked from start to finish. At 'his' crem at least (which is part of a nation-wide company) it is possible to witness the actual cremation, if you have any doubts or want to really see your loved one to the final end.
Obviously I can't speak for whatever has happened with the particular funeral business in the media at the moment.