Owners of Chicago funeral home where dozens of decomposing bodies were found have been in trouble before

The owners of a Far South Side funeral home where dozens of decomposing bodies were found earlier this week have run into trouble with state regulators before over their handling of bodies at a crematory in the south suburbs.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office worked through the night on Thursday night to remove remains from the South Chicago Chapel at 95th Street and Exchange Avenue.

State investigators first responded to the facility following a tip earlier this week, and discovered 57 bodies in various states of decomposition.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation moved to suspend funeral home director Johanna Morgan's license on Wednesday, citing "multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies."

Johanna Morgan's husband, Clark Morgan, is listed as the President of South Chicago Chapel. He previously owned and operated Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, which was shut down last year, accused of mishandling the bodies of people who had recently died. 

CBS News Chicago obtained photos from inside a trailer at the crematory where bodies were being stored. The trailer is located on the property belonging to Heights, and the photos show deceased people partially wrapped in sheets or clear plastic bags, with their faces and body parts sticking out.

CBS News Chicago also found bodies in bags moved from another trailer on the site, and there are questions about storage areas without proper refrigeration at the business. 

One man had been dead an entire year.

Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who regulates crematories, shut that business down last year, revoking its license.

"It is really disgusting and upsetting to find out that they're still at it, and I had said back then, these folks will figure out a way to circumvent the system," she said. "I don't know how there's not like a microscope on this entity. You know, the Morgans literally run a house of horrors in their businesses."

But when it comes to the Morgans' funeral home, Mendoza said her hands are tied, because funeral homes are regulated by a different state agency.

"We don't have the authority to, you know, look at what's going on in their funeral home. That's not something that we regulate or investigate. That is fully under the purview of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations, and we have made it clear to them that these are terrible actors," Mendoza said on Friday.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said, while they have the power to revoke funeral directors' licenses, they do not have jurisdiction over funeral homes.

Mendoza said regulation of funeral homes and crematories should be handled by a single state agency.

"We could prevent this from happening. I think more so in the future, if both of these institutions were regulated by one entity instead of multiple places," she said.

Earlier this year, Mendoza said that she was communicating with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart about pursuing a criminal investigation into the Morgans for what happened at their crematory. Dart's office said on Friday that they have offered their assistance to all agencies.

The Morgans have not responded to requests for comment.