Whistleblower speaks after Chicago Heights crematory shuts down for improperly storing bodies
For the first time, the whistleblower behind the closing of a south suburban Chicago crematory speaks out after Illinois state investigators obtained how the remains of deceased people were being handled.
Disturbing images of bodies stacked inside a trailer outside a suburban crematorium, with some wrapped in sheets or plastic, with faces and body parts exposed.
Families from Illinois and Indiana are angry about the way their loved ones were being handled. The man who took the photos that led to a multi-state investigation said, "Something needed to be done."
Dave: "Are these some of the pictures that you took?"
Christopher: "They are."
His name is Christopher Iacovetti. He sent the photos to CBS News Chicago investigators. One of the bags was filled with dead bugs.
Dave: "Describe for me what you see in those pictures."
Christopher: "Very deplorable conditions of storage. Complete disrespect and disregard for the families of these loved ones."
The bodies were being stored in a trailer at Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights.
When asked to open the trailer, Clark Morgan, who operates the crematory, refused and also refused to answer any questions.
The photos were taken on Feb. 15, and four days later, the crematory was voluntarily shut down pending an investigation by state regulators into the handling of bodies here.
"He was just treated like he wasn't even a person."
Her name is Brittany's Sons. She says her family trusted Crown Cremations in Crown Point, Indiana, to cremate her father, Danny Son Sr. They say he was a hard-working family man, a carpenter by trade who succumbed to cancer at the age of 61 in February.
They had no idea he was transported over state lines and stored in a trailer.
Dave: "What did it do you to see those images with that trailer out back?"
Brittany: "I just keep seeing like my dad in that trailer and dumped like he was nothing."
"To me what, that looked no different than if you through my loved one in a landfill," said Shanna Cauley, niece.
Iacovetti is an electrician, but he said a friend of his, a licensed funeral director, would occasionally ask him to help with body removals from homes and hospitals.
Dave: "You had seen something that you just couldn't unsee."
Christopher: "Correct. A very sad way to see the final days of where your loved one goes."
"It's it's disgusting, it just makes you sick to the core," said Stacey Morrow Graves.
Among those inside the trailer on the day the photos were taken was 81-year-old Merrit Morrow, a well-known dairy farmer and Vietnam veteran.
"Everybody knows my dad for his laugh," Stacey said.
Her father's name was written in marker on a bed sheet. His body parts were sticking out of a loosely wrapped sheet
"It drives you crazy," she said.
The Morrow family feels betrayed by Crown Cremations and Heights Crematory because they trusted both businesses to handle his body with dignity and respect.
"Because you don't know, and you're the one that made that choice to go through their business to have this happen to your dad," Stacey said.
They wanted to hold a celebration of life for him, but they didn't get his ashes back for two weeks.
"I don't even know if this is my father in this urn," she said.
Dave: "Did you know they found 100 bodies out there?
Christopher: "Wow yeah"
Iacovetti, a military veteran himself, also snapped the photo of a man wearing a suit in this plastic bag—one of the most troubling discoveries he has been waiting to be cremated for a year.
"I'll tell you, from looking at him. The level of decomposition of him, when I saw him, I knew he was there for a long time," he said.
A message written on his body identifies him as Jasper Williams. The number three above his name is for March 2024. He was 74, and his family has now been informed.
"I look at him, I see a guy that had a wife, children, lived a good life, worked his whole life for his family to end up, to end up in a bag in the back of a trailer," Iacovetti said.
Heights are only supposed to accept bodies in non-leachable containers. They must be refrigerated at 40 degrees or less, but none were heard running during the investigation.
They have been cited in the past for storage violations. Crown Cremations was shipping their bodies there along with numerous Chicago area funeral homes.
The Indiana Attorney General and the State of Illinois Comptroller Office are now investigating. The families want both companies shut down for good and have contacted numerous police agencies for a criminal investigation. Fines and a complete revocation of licenses are possible.
The families want both companies shut down for good and have contacted numerous police agencies for a criminal investigation.
