Headstone Headlines & Belated Arrests | 4M #247

Welcome to the two-hundred-and-forty-seventh edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #247, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!

Cotters arrested

The former owners of Pueblo, Colorado’s Davis Mortuary, where the remains of at least 24 individuals were found in a “hidden” room last August, have finally been arrested. Brian Cotter, who stepped down from his position as Pueblo County Coroner after the discovery, and his brother Chris Cotter were arrested on Thursday and charged with 125 counts of abuse of a corpse, nine counts of forgery, and more than 25 theft charges. Despite initial intentions to arrest the Cotters after all 24 bodies had been identified, authorities have only been able to identify 19 to date. This is definitely a story we’re going to continue to follow as more details emerge.

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Law & disorder

What the heck is it about headstones that makes them such a prime product for consumer scams?  I’m sure our readers have ideas — and I’m also sure you’d never take advantage of whatever loopholes allow this fraud. But some folks just can’t resist, including these two who showed up just over the past week:

• A former Alabama funeral director has been charged with first-degree financial exploitation of the elderly for accepting payments for headstones from at least 12 families and pocketing the funds. The funeral home that employed him is out about $200,000, but they are fully cooperating with authorities and trying to help these families their former staffer scammed.
• A Pennsylvania headstone salesman pleaded guilty last week to federal charges of wire fraud and filing false tax returns; he now faces up to 152 years in prison. The charges are connected to his failure to deliver or refund nearly $1.5 million in headstone orders placed by nearly 500 families. 

Speaking of headstones …

Storm damage is always a concern for cemeterians, but a toppled tree at a Rochester, New York cemetery gained attention last week not for the damage it caused, but for what it revealed — a headstone that had been buried under the tree’s roots for more than 100 years. Cemetery volunteer Tom Jones made the discovery as he walked the grounds after a particularly powerful windstorm, telling a local news outlet that the tree “came down the right way and opened it up and Edna Goodman Allen is back.” Allen lived from 1892 to 1918, and at some point, the ground gobbled up her stone, which is in remarkably good condition. The cemetery plans to clean the debris and reset Allen’s headstone.

Toddler mom identified

Remember the woman in last week’s 4M whose toddler tagged along as she broke into niches in a Texas mausoleum and stole valuables? Well, she (the mom, not the toddler) has been arrested. She now faces two charges of burglary and theft from a graveyard as well as unrelated charges from a separate county. 

His “View” on death

Actor Colin Farrell was a guest on last Wednesday’s episode of “The View” talk show, and somehow the conversation turned to death — and one statement the 50-year-old made should sound like music to our readers’ ears. “Life is so short. If you’re lucky to live to 80 or 90, it’s just a blip,” Farrell told co-host Joy Behar, adding, “I think we don’t talk about death enough.”  Anytime a celebrity talks about death (or anything, for that matter), people seem to listen, so hopefully Farrell’s message will resonate with his fans.