Torrential Rains & 6-Day Funerals | 4M #248
Welcome to the two-hundred-and-forty-eighth edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #248, 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!
New rules
Once again, a horrific deathcare discovery has resulted in stronger laws and government oversight — which is a good thing, except for the circumstances that had to occur to make it happen. Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law House Bill 4695, which “expands the authority of the state comptroller to investigate crematories and mandates all bodies brought to a crematory be incinerated within 60 days, absent special circumstances.” The bill, which also addresses storage requirements, stems from the discovery of more than 100 improperly stored bodies at a Chicago Heights crematory in 2025.
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Deathcare docket
Thankfully, there is not a whole lot to report on the docket this week, but there’s still enough to warrant its inclusion in the 4M:
- A Tennessee funeral home is being investigated after a family reported that a refund check bounced and that a loved one’s cremains were kept at the funeral home for 51 days.
- The Cotter brothers, former owners of Davis Mortuary in Pueblo, Colorado, were released on bond on June 26, the day after they were arrested on multiple charges related to the improper storage of 24 bodies. They’ll be back in court in September.
- The cremator operator license of a South Carolina man with an extensive criminal history has been suspended on the grounds that his actions pose a “serious threat to the public’s safety and welfare.”
A different kind of loss
A New York funeral director is doing something he never thought he’d have to do — telling the families he serves to lock their car doors during cemetery services. Sean Cannan of James W. Cannan Funeral Home in Orchard Park told a local news outlet that thefts at one particular cemetery have increased to the point that he’s had purses stolen from cars during active graveside services that were taking place in a torrential rainstorm. Canaan has had to share his warning on social media, justifiably calling the actions of thieves preying on vulnerable mourners “disgusting.”
Cold, but no chemicals
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, died on February 28, 2026 along with several of his family members as a result of Israeli airstrikes — but more than four months later, he still hasn’t been buried. However, the country is in the midst of his six-day funeral, which should conclude with his burial on July 9, 2026. Perhaps predictably, one of the questions outsiders have asked concerns exactly how Khamenei’s body has been preserved for such a long time. Well, according to the Hindustan Times, the presumed answer is “cold storage” and definitely not embalming or other chemical treatments, which is banned in Islam culture. Islam also calls for immediate burial, but it’s pretty clear that an exception was made in this case.
