Judge to hear from city inspectors on South Chicago Chapel funeral home where 55 decomposing bodies were found
A judge was expected on Thursday to hear what city inspectors found inside a funeral chapel in Chicago's South Deering community.
In August, authorities removed the decomposing remains of 55 people from the South Chicago Chapel, 2939 E. 95th St. Families still want to know how their loved ones were treated and why.
On Thursday morning, a court's focus will be on the chapel and what happens to it next.
The city said this past Friday, electrical, carpentry, plumbing and demolition inspectors took part in a comprehensive examination of the South Chicago Chapel building. Details of the findings were expected to be heard in court on Thursday.
The inspection follows a lawsuit by the city accusing the funeral home's owners of 23 building code violations. The lawsuit and inspection in turn came after authorities found 55 bodies in various states of decomposition inside the funeral home in August.
State regulators said some of the corpses were kept in unrefrigerated areas where rodents and maggots were present.
South Chicago Chapel funeral director Johanna Morgan's license was suspended after investigators made the discovery.
It took the Cook County Medical Examiner's office about two months to identify all 55 people whose bodies were removed.
Johanna Morgan's husband, Clark Morgan, previously was caught improperly handling bodies at the Heights Crematory in south suburban Chicago Heights in early 2025.
The CBS News Chicago investigators found Clark Morgan altered the expiration date on his license after it expired in 2019. After he was fined $10,000, he continued using the forged license despite repeated complaints.
After the discovery involving the crematory, the Illinois State Comptroller's office, which regulates crematoriums, tried over and over and over again to get the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which regulates funeral homes, to suspend Johanna's funeral director license.
Meanwhile, just this week, a new family exclusively shared videos of a loved one's body with the CBS News Chicago Investigators, saying the mishandling and mistreatment of his remains was a missed warning sign about South Chicago Chapel. The body of 76-year-old Ronald Tyler was already decomposing by the time his daughter Terri found out where he was being stored.
The city said the South Chicago Chapel building is vacant, and court proceedings will determine what happens next.
The hearing on Thursday is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
