Shut down Funeral Home! Morris Carruth’s Body Missing! Guess you could call this an Ethical Problem?
Guest Article Contributed by: Chuck Gallagher
As a funeral professional – it doesn’t get much worse than this! Advanced Care Funeral and Cremation (Sacramento, CA) handled the service and remains of Morris Carruth who died of a heart attack on August 9th. 
Now two months has past and the family is still wondering where the body remains are? Meanwhile, the funeral home has closed shop
According to an article on Fox40 (the full article can be seen here).
“The new stress is now we can’t find his body. He was to be cremated after the funeral, they told us the body would be delivered to us in two weeks, and it never happened,” said Lisa Evans, Carruth’s sister.Evans stopped by the company’s location along 29th Street after her calls went unanswered, but found the office cleaned out and closed.
“I called FOX40 News.”
We placed several calls on Evans’ behalf and found out Advanced Care Funeral Services had their license pulled by the State, and they were shut down.
The California State Cemetery and Funeral Bureau says they investigated the company for mishandling the remains of five people, and got a temporary restraining order.
But Evans was never contacted during the investigation, and her brother Morris was not one of the five remains found mishandled.
“I have noidea where he is and it’s a real messed up feeling,” said Evans.
While the funeral home is being investigated there is still no word on the location of the body of Morris Carruth. The State’s investigation of Advanced Care Funeral Services also found the funeral director licensed to run the business was only working minimal hours, and was possibly having non-licensed people handling remains.
ETHICS and LEGALITY: At times the choices we make – ethical choices – have unintended consequences – many that are also illegal. If deceased human remains were mishandled due to cost considerations, that may be an ethical issue. But, the disappearance of those remains moves past the ethical operation of a business to one that is potentially illegal.
The outcome thus far on this unfolding story is two fold: (1) a funeral home is shut down for reasons related to the operations of their business in an ethical manner; and (2) more importantly, a family doesn’t have closure following the death of their loved one.
Every choice has a consequence! Wonder what motivated the family to select this funeral home and wonder what motivated the funeral home to act in the manner they did?
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
LATE BREAKING ADDITION: Body found (so they say) story in full here.
