Pittsburgh-area funeral director Patrick Vereb taken into custody after pleading guilty to pet cremation fraud
Patrick Vereb, the Pittsburgh-area funeral home director charged with pet cremation fraud, was taken into custody after he pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts he was facing.
Vereb, 72, appeared at the Allegheny County Courthouse on Thursday, submitting a guilty plea after being accused of defrauding thousands of pet owners over several years while operating funeral homes in Hazelwood and Harrison Township.
After pleading guilty, Vereb's bond was revoked when Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jaime Hickton learned he no longer lives in Allegheny County.
The information came to light as Hickton attempted to order him to electronic home monitoring in Allegheny County. Vereb started whispering to his attorney, saying he didn't live in Allegheny County. His attorney said, "What? What about your properties?" and Vereb said, "I sold them."
Vereb filed a civil complaint against a moving company, claiming it damaged his bookcases and dining room table, part of a matching set he said could not be replaced. He was seeking more than $3,000 in damages. In that filing, he listed an address in Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, and real estate records show the property associated with that address sold June 10 for $330,000.
He was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and will be held in custody until his sentencing in January.
"I feel complete relief that he just talked himself right into a jail cell," victim Linda Packard told KDKA. "No Thanksgiving, no Christmas, no New Year's."
A whistleblower alleged in 2025 that Vereb took payments to give people's pets dignified burials or cremations, but then would dump the bodies and give back ashes belonging to something else.
According to investigators, Vereb promised nearly 6,500 pets a proper burial, but the bodies were dumped in landfills or left in leaking garbage bags.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, whose office led the prosecution, said last week that he was "very happy" that Vereb chose to plead guilty.
The attorney general's office previously said that Vereb's sentence could range from house arrest up to more than a year in jail. Vereb could also face upwards of $600,000 in restitution to be paid to the victims. Vereb's sentencing is set for Jan. 21, 2027.
"Definitely poetic justice," Packard said. "It is definitely what I wanted to see: him walking out in handcuffs."
