Cremation Unacceptable, Scholar Says

PAKISTAN Air has reduced the cost of returning home the bodies of the five people who died as a result of last week's tragic house fire on Woodlark Place.

Instead of the $60,000 it was going to cost, the price has been reduced to $26,000.

As the airline charges by weight, it might be even cheaper to cremate the bodies and send back the ashes, but that's not an option for Hamid Farooq, an observant Muslim and the grieving sole survivor of his family here. Islam forbids cremation.

According to the Islamic faith, dead bodies are to be washed, wrapped in a white shroud and buried as quickly as possible.

Cremation is not permitted, as it is considered dishonourable to the dead and because of the Muslim belief that bodies will be resurrected on the day of judgment.

Says Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto: "In Islam, funeral rites and practices have been prescribed by the divine law, in accordance with the dictates of Allah.

"According to this law... burying the dead has been the prescribed method of conveying the deceased to their graves.

"We have no mention anywhere that cremation was acceptable in any of the previous dispensations from Allah."

In keeping with the spirit of the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, and in accordance with Muslim scholars, "it is necessary for us to treat the human body with the utmost of respect, not only when a person is alive, but also when dead," he said.

"Incinerating the corpse... is considered sacrilege and abhorrent and, therefore, forbidden according to Islam."

SOURCE: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cremation-unacceptable-scholar-says-138310064.html

Presley Autopsy Tools Pulled from Auction

Tools rumored to have been used in Elvis Presley’s autopsy have been yanked from auction because of difficulties in proving their authenticity.

According to Reuters, the collection was supposed to go on sale with other Elvis memorabilia on Aug. 12 and expected to bring in about $14,000. The questioned items, listed with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago, included a toe tag, forceps, gloves, syringes, cosmetics and makeup applicators.

Presley died in 1977 at age 42 from drug-related heart trouble. Memorabilia and music sales of the perennially popular legend earned $55 million last year.

Reuters reported that a now-retired embalmer for Memphis Funeral Home said he took the items after using them in performing work on the rock and roll legend’s body. But another funeral home employee said the items were cleaned and reused on other bodies. The funeral home, which does not intend to sue, also claimed ownership of the property.

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Man Accused of Sexually Assaulting Teen in Funeral Home Basement

A southwest Iowa man who faces sex abuse charges was arrested Thursday night in Council Bluffs. A warrant was issued in Mills County Thursday, for 55-year-old Stephen Beattie, of Malvern who was wanted in connection with an investigation into charges he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old male this past April in the basement of the Mansfield-Hertz Funeral Home in Malvern.

Beattie was being held Thursday night in the Mills County Jail on a felony charge of third-degree sexual abuse, along with two serious misdemeanor charges, including lascivious acts with a minor, and indecent exposure. A criminal complaint filed against Beattie alleges he committed sex acts on the unidentified teen just two days before the funeral home’s director, Karl Hertz, committed suicide, on April 16th.

The complaint also implicated Hertz, by saying he participated in the sex acts. The teen told investigators he had worked for Hertz for nearly three years, and had engaged in similar activities with him for seven months. The juvenile alleged that on a dozen occasions, Hertz showed him pornographic images on the computer in the funeral home’s basement.

The 62-year-old committed suicide before authorities had a chance to act on a search warrant for his home and business. Had he lived, Hertz would have faced similar charges resulting from the current case, as well as for similar sexual activity involving yet another male juvenile.

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Northern Virginia Funeral Home Fined for Mishandling Bodies

A Northern Virginia funeral home that acts as a regional embalming facility for a national corporation has been penalized by the state for violations that include improperly storing bodies in the facility's garage and hallways.

National Funeral Home and the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers signed a consent order this week in which the Falls Church facility agreed to two years of probation, a $50,000 fine and six unannounced inspections each year. A two-year suspension was imposed but immediately stayed. It could take effect if the funeral home is found to have any violations in the next two years.

Employees at the funeral home raised concerns last year that hundreds of bodies were being mishandled at the facility. A Washington Post article in April 2009 detailed allegations that bodies had been left on hazardous-materials boxes and makeshift gurneys; deceased veterans were placed on garage racks for months while awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery; and some bodies were left exposed and leaking fluids.

Photographs taken in the funeral home documented the alleged abuses, and family members of the deceased said they had no idea that their loved ones' bodies had been taken to the facility and were not being properly stored in refrigerated areas.

State board officials said Wednesday that the $50,000 fine is one of the highest financial penalties ever handed to a funeral establishment in Virginia and that the six annual inspections are the most the board has ever ordered. By accepting a consent order, National Funeral Home and its parent company, Houston-based Service Corporation International, avoid the possibility of having their licenses revoked at a formal board hearing.

"Their behavior was not according to the law and the regulations," said Lisa Hahn, the board's executive director. "They are going to be closely monitored. The board has taken this very seriously."
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Lisa Marshall, a spokeswoman for Service Corporation International, said the agreement is not an admission of guilt but is a way to put the issue to rest so that National Funeral Home and its employees can focus on serving clients. "It's a reflection of what we think is the right thing to do," Marshall said. "It was time to put this behind us."

Steven Napper, a former Maryland state trooper who worked as an embalmer at National Funeral Home, was the first to come forward with concerns about the conditions there. He provided evidence of the problems and allowed family members to learn how their relatives were being treated. Other employees confirmed his accounts.

Napper -- who recently opened his own funeral home in Maryland, Eternal Faith Funeral Services -- said Wednesday that he thinks coming forward was the right thing to do and that the punishment is appropriate.

"This was really the whole purpose," Napper said. "I just thought people should be treated a lot better than they were. I'm really happy to hear this."

Families of those whose bodies were stored in the garage were shocked to learn how their loved ones were treated and said it was a great indignity. Families of military veterans who later were buried at Arlington National Cemetery are pursuing civil lawsuits against the funeral home.

The revelations about the problems sparked quick action last year by the state board and Virginia legislators.

Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), the only licensed funeral director in the General Assembly, sponsored legislation that requires bodies to be refrigerated and requires a funeral home to tell family members where -- and under what conditions -- the deceased will be stored before burial or cremation. The House and Senate unanimously passed the bill, which takes effect July 1.

"We should honor and treat our dead with dignity," Alexander said. "The conditions that are in the bill, I seriously believe that they are needed and are good for the industry. It was an effort by everyone to do the right thing."

Marshall said that National Funeral Home has installed additional refrigeration units and wants to maintain a high level of integrity.

"National Funeral Home has been part of its community for a long time," Marshall said. "We want to remain important to the community and want to demonstrate the high level of service the community has come to expect from us."

SOURCE

Funeral Home Fined in Arlington Problems

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- A Virginia funeral home accused of mishandling bodies awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery has been fined $50,000.

The Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers and National Funeral Home signed a consent order Monday. National agreed to the fine, two years probation and a half-dozen unannounced inspections per year, said Lisa Marshall, spokeswoman for Service Corporation International, the funeral home's parent company.

A former employee had accused the Falls Church funeral home of storing bodies in hallways and on unrefrigerated storage racks in a garage. Funeral home officials acknowledged they stored bodies in the garage, but never for long.

The Washington Post reported on the allegations last year.

The agreement is not an admission of guilt, but a way to settle the issue, Marshall said Wednesday.

"It was time to put this behind us," she said. "The [funeral home's] associates were continually distracted by the ongoing investigation."

The Post reported last year that the former employee's documentation, as well as the observations of three other employees and a grieving son, sparked an investigation by the state board.

Marshall said the funeral home has added refrigeration and tightened regulations, policies and training.

"There is a renewed focus on respect for our families," Marshall said.

SOURCE

Northern Virginia Funeral Home Fined for Mishandling Bodies

A Northern Virginia funeral home that acts as a regional embalming facility for a national corporation has been penalized by the state for violations that include improperly storing bodies in the facility's garage and hallways.

National Funeral Home and the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers signed a consent order this week in which the Falls Church facility agreed to two years of probation, a $50,000 fine and six unannounced inspections each year. A two-year suspension was imposed but immediately stayed. It could take effect if the funeral home is found to have any violations in the next two years.

Employees at the funeral home raised concerns last year that hundreds of bodies were being mishandled at the facility. A Washington Post article in April 2009 detailed allegations that bodies had been left on hazardous-materials boxes and makeshift gurneys; deceased veterans were placed on garage racks for months while awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery; and some bodies were left exposed and leaking fluids.

Photographs taken in the funeral home documented the alleged abuses, and family members of the deceased said they had no idea that their loved ones' bodies had been taken to the facility and were not being properly stored in refrigerated areas.

State board officials said Wednesday that the $50,000 fine is one of the highest financial penalties ever handed to a funeral establishment in Virginia and that the six annual inspections are the most the board has ever ordered. By accepting a consent order, National Funeral Home and its parent company, Houston-based Service Corporation International, avoid the possibility of having their licenses revoked at a formal board hearing.

"Their behavior was not according to the law and the regulations," said Lisa Hahn, the board's executive director. "They are going to be closely monitored. The board has taken this very seriously."

Lisa Marshall, a spokeswoman for Service Corporation International, said the agreement is not an admission of guilt but is a way to put the issue to rest so that National Funeral Home and its employees can focus on serving clients. "It's a reflection of what we think is the right thing to do," Marshall said. "It was time to put this behind us."

Steven Napper, a former Maryland state trooper who worked as an embalmer at National Funeral Home, was the first to come forward with concerns about the conditions there. He provided evidence of the problems and allowed family members to learn how their relatives were being treated. Other employees confirmed his accounts.

Napper -- who recently opened his own funeral home in Maryland, Eternal Faith Funeral Services -- said Wednesday that he thinks coming forward was the right thing to do and that the punishment is appropriate.

"This was really the whole purpose," Napper said. "I just thought people should be treated a lot better than they were. I'm really happy to hear this."

Families of those whose bodies were stored in the garage were shocked to learn how their loved ones were treated and said it was a great indignity. Families of military veterans who later were buried at Arlington National Cemetery are pursuing civil lawsuits against the funeral home.

The revelations about the problems sparked quick action last year by the state board and Virginia legislators.

Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), the only licensed funeral director in the General Assembly, sponsored legislation that requires bodies to be refrigerated and requires a funeral home to tell family members where -- and under what conditions -- the deceased will be stored before burial or cremation. The House and Senate unanimously passed the bill, which takes effect July 1.

"We should honor and treat our dead with dignity," Alexander said. "The conditions that are in the bill, I seriously believe that they are needed and are good for the industry. It was an effort by everyone to do the right thing."

Marshall said that National Funeral Home has installed additional refrigeration units and wants to maintain a high level of integrity.

"National Funeral Home has been part of its community for a long time," Marshall said. "We want to remain important to the community and want to demonstrate the high level of service the community has come to expect from us."

SOURCE

Mortician Accused of Mishandling Corpses, Abusing Drugs

The state board that licenses funeral homes in Ohio has opened an investigation into a funeral director in Findlay, Ohio, who is accused of mishandling a corpse, being naked in public and wearing the jacket of a deceased man in front of his family.

Though Gregory Routson, owner of Routson Funeral Chapel, is not facing any criminal charges, his funeral home has been closed pending an investigation, according to a notice of suspension issued Monday by the State of Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors.

State regulators said they began the investigation after receiving a complaint from a family last week.

Other allegations against Routson include being intoxicated or addicted to illegal drugs, not properly disposing of waste materials and failing to properly sterilize instruments used in embalming. He's also accused of being naked in public during business hours, threatening and/or harassing employees and partially embalming a corpse and then leaving it un-refrigerated for 13 days.

Routson did not return calls to his funeral home, but he told CNN affiliate WUPW that the accusations are not true. Since being shut down on Monday, he said he's been inundated by concerned customers who have prepaid for funeral arrangements.

"I'm sorry that this had to happen," he said. "Because they entrusted their final wishes to me, and it should have never happened."

Routson can ask the state board for a hearing or file an appeal in court within 30 days.

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Former Funeral Director Denies Forging Death Certificates

A former funeral home director accused of forging death certificates and misplacing money pleaded not guilty to multiple charges on Friday.

Authorities said Marvin Boatright, who lost his funeral director's license in 2007, forged another person's name on at least 10 death certificates between 2007 and 2009.He's also accused of taking money, around $7,000 each in most cases, for prearranged funerals, but not placing it in a trust within 30 days, as required by law.

Boatright, who was indicted on 14 charges, told 6News' Rafael Sanchez outside of court on Friday that he is innocent and plans the fight the allegations."Let me say, we have well over $1 million in pre-funeral trust and insurance and those monies are protected," he said. He also denied forging death certificates.

Authorities launched an investigation into Boatright after the body of an infant was found in a garbage bin last year, along with supplies from Boatright's business, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said.Boatright isn't facing charges related to the baby.

A third lab will soon begin DNA testing to confirm the identity of the parents of the child.

Officials asked anyone who may have paid Boatright for funeral pre-planning to call 317-327-5600.Boatright's trial is set for Aug. 23.

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Weird Funeral News from Ohio

Former morgue attendant Kenneth Douglas - - who worked in an Ohio funeral home from 1976 to 1992 - - faces charges for sexually abusing corpses.

The 55-year-old man was convicted in 2008 of having sex with a body awaiting autopsy. In 2009, he was charged with assaulting the bodies of two other women's bodies at the Hamilton County morgue in 1991.

The more recent charges are based on DNA evidence. Prosecutor Joe Deters told the Associated Press the case is "just beyond belief."

"I'm sure there are more," he said. "I'm certain of it, but we'll never be able to prove it."

Woman Found Living with Three Dead Siblings

An elderly woman has been living with two skeletons and a badly decomposed body of her siblings in a suburb of Chicago, one of whom may have died at least 20 years ago, authorities said on Saturday.

The remains were found covered by sheets in various parts of the house in Evanston on Friday but no foul play was suspected.

Authorities said one of the siblings was last seen alive in the 1980s, the second in 2003 and the third in May.

The woman living in the house, described as "upwards of 90 years of age," was cooperating in the investigation and was taken to a facility for care.

Authorities, who did not release the names of the deceased, said a care worker had alerted them to the situation. Autopsies were due to be performed on Saturday.

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Weird Funeral News from Florida

Seth McCarty, 18, and Joel Rivera, 19, were charged with desecration of a grave after allegedly stealing a skull from a tomb at Florida's Spring Hill Cemetery.

Police say the teens denied vandalizing the tomb, but eventually admitted to the act, leading them to a friend's house, where it was found in a bucket of bleach.

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Weird Funeral News from Vietnam

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, an online newspaper says.

The 55-year-old man from a small town in the central province of Quang Nam opened up his wife's grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.

The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept on top of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave "to sleep with her".

His children found out, though, and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife's remains and took them home, Vietnamnet reported.

The website carried a photo of Van with the figure of his wife, which is still in his home.

The father of seven said neighbors did not dare visit the house for several years.

"I'm a person that does things differently. I'm not like normal people," he was quoted as saying.

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Family Cremated Mother on BBQ

CORNING, Calif. - Authorities said relatives of a deceased Tehama County woman cremated her remains on a makeshift barbecue and continued collecting her retirement checks.

Ramona Allmond's daughter and grandson were arrested Sunday on suspicion of embezzlement, elder abuse and disposing of a body without a permit, among other charges. They are being held at the Tehama County Jail in Red Bluff on $30,000 bail, with arraignment set for Thursday.

Sheriff's Capt. Paul Hosler says the 84-year-old Allmond likely had died of natural causes, though investigators are still trying to determine the cause of death.

Hosler says her daughter, 50-year-old Kathleen Allmond, and her grandson, 30-year-old Tony Ray, told investigators they left the body on her bedroom floor for a week before cremating the remains in their backyard fire pit. They then covered the pit and remains with soil and planted a tree on top, according to investigators. The family's home sits in the midst of a 10-acre olive grove, remote from neighbors.

Skull added to necklace?
Detectives say the daughter also fashioned a two-inch piece of her mother's skull into a necklace. Hosler said Ray took a photograph of Kathleen Allmond wearing the necklace, as well as a beaded wire tiara that she believed would ward off radio waves, to post on a social networking Web site.

"It gets really weird when you have a piece of mom's skull hanging around your neck," Hosler said. "I'm not aware of any religion that allows you to burn your family members in the backyard and collect their pension."

Investigators said they kept collecting her monthly retirement checks amounting to more than $25,000 since the elderly woman died in December.

Detective Richard Knox said they may have been trying to honor the woman's desire to die at home and be cremated.

Deputies arrested the pair after the dead woman's son asked deputies for a welfare check because he had not heard from his mother since December. Hosler said his suspicions were further aroused last week when he called and Kathleen Allmond pretended she was the 84-year-old woman.

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Weird Funeral News from Podgorica

A Montenegrin man made an unsuccessful suicide attempt in front of shocked funeral home staffers after he purchased a coffin, climbed in and shot himself.

Milo Bogisic paid cash for the casket at Palma Funerals in Podgorica before he wrote out his obituary and climbed into the coffin. He then put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

The 52-year-old man survived the blast when the bullet passed through his chin and nose, missing his brain, Ananova reports.

Police said Bogisic was having family problems and was even more devastated when he “hadn’t managed to end it all.”

To add insult to injury, the funeral home refused to give him a refund on the coffin.

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Murderer to be Turned Into Fish Food

A convicted murderer on death row will have his body turned into fish food and fed to goldfish, all for the sake of art.

Gene Hathorn, 47, who was convicted of killing his father, stepmother and stepbrother in 1985, has given his consent to artist Marco Evaristti to use his body as an "art installation" in part of a wider project on capital punishment.

Should Hathorn's final appeal fail, Mr Evaristti would deep-freeze Hathorn's body and then turn it into fish food which visitors at the exhibition could feed to goldfish.

Mr Evaristti, a Chilean-born artist living in Denmark, hopes to begin work within a year if Hathorn is refused an appeal for the third time.

The pair met when Mr Evaristti was researching the longest serving inmates on Texas' infamous death row.

He first visited Hathorn in April this year and when he first suggest the idea to Hathorn, he apparently agreed immediately.

Mr Evaristti said: "Gene Hathorn's story is a powerful one but it is not his story that is as important for me as the system that exists in a society such as America's in such a vulgar and primitive way, the system, of killing people like this. I wanted to raise awareness of the fact there are people killed legally in our Western civilisation."

He added: "He wants to be a part of this art. It's the last thing he can do for society and he views it as positive."

There are doubts Mr Evaristti will be able to use Hathorn's remains in such a way but he is prepared for legal proceedings.

In the meantime, he is helping raise £125,000 for an investigation into events surrounding the circumstances of Hathorn's conviction, in the hope it may lead to an appeal, and has so far raised £52,000 through drawings produced by Hathorn.

The artist said details such as the sexual abuse Hathorn experienced at the hands of his father, an alleged Ku Klux Klan member, was not included in court proceedings leading to his convictions.

Mr Evaristti has been involved in a number of controversial exhibitions in the past. He first gained notoriety for a museum display in 2000 when he placed goldfish in electric blenders filled with water and invited visitors to turn them on.

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