Arrests at a funeral directors in Hull.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

shocking isn't it!

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.

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'.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

read the article.

heartbreaking

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.

what exactly were the 'ashes made up of'' that the young mother was given for her brother .. on the news.

just what are the 'ashes' people were given bearing in mind 34
bodies were found on the premises.

That sounds awful, really distressing. So many must be suffering right now.

A relative has been interviewed, her father and brother died back in 2022, seems like the father’s ashes have never been returned to the family.

That is a possibility, though I am mindful that we mustn’t speculate it could explain the accusation of fraud. Preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body, with all that implies, is very troubling. I feel very sorry for the loved ones of those whose bodies are the subject of this investigation.

It seems a really strange case.

One aspect I noticed (from the website) is that the company offers various low-cost packages - such as unattended cremation, attended cremation with the funeral held in the Funeral home's own chapel.

I wonder if they have been taking the money but not organising the actual cremation with the crematorium? It might have taken weeks or months to come to light when people started asking questions about where the ashes were.

34 bodies removed seems a very high number so perhaps storage became an issue.

Urmstongran

Father & daughter owners I believe. Of 3 funeral parlours.

The 3rd premises in Beverley were apparently not occupied or used as “chapel of rest” they were to gain a presence in the market town.