The weird investigation into the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, Hull

[existentialist]

This is truly grim, so much so I'll put it in spolier.

Spoiler

The body of a 78-year-old grandmother was left to decompose at a funeral parlour at the centre of a police investigation for seven weeks, her relatives have claimed.
Susan Stone’s family and friends gathered at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hessle Road, Hull in January for her funeral before mourners were told her body would be taken off for cremation.

But seven weeks later the Stone family, who are from Hull, received a call from Humberside Police informing them that Mrs Stone’s body was still inside the funeral parlour without being refrigerated.

According to reports, the body was too decomposed to the point dental records will be required for formal identification before she can be cremated.

https://archive.ph/aIqdY

These monsters need long jail time.

Time and time again, we hear from various bits of industry that they don't need no steenking regulation - self-regulation will work Just Fine, thanks.

And, time and time again, we then encounter situations where self-regulation really hasn't worked at all. I'm not one for massive state interventionist stuff, but it seems to me that, even if you are going to have "light touch" regulation via trade bodies, it shouldn't be optional, and there needs to be some oversight of the regulatory process itself.

It's just too much to expect that everyone in any given sector will always do the right thing, just because - for reasons of negligence, criminality, carelessness, ineptitude, or whatever, there are always going to be cases where organisations go off the rails, and whatever system is in place needs to be able to spot that, and have the necessary teeth to be able to enforce compliance.

 

[Spymaster]

This is truly grim, so much so I'll put it in spolier.

Spoiler

The body of a 78-year-old grandmother was left to decompose at a funeral parlour at the centre of a police investigation for seven weeks, her relatives have claimed.
Susan Stone’s family and friends gathered at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hessle Road, Hull in January for her funeral before mourners were told her body would be taken off for cremation.

But seven weeks later the Stone family, who are from Hull, received a call from Humberside Police informing them that Mrs Stone’s body was still inside the funeral parlour without being refrigerated.

According to reports, the body was too decomposed to the point dental records will be required for formal identification before she can be cremated.

https://archive.ph/aIqdY

These monsters need long jail time.

This just gets weirder every day. After 7 weeks unrefrigerated, a human body is well into liquification.

This is sounding like a proper house of horrors now. I've a feeling this is going to be a massive deal that films get made about in the future.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Fucking hell they really didn’t give a shit did they? The FB marketplace ads have been removed, now but he gave away one of his walk in mortuary chillers because ‘it wasn’t very cold, probably needed regassing.’ That one had all of his sports bike tools hanging up on the side of it.

 

[moochedit]

Why would you let rotting corpses pile up in your building? I get they might not want to pay cremation fees (or electric bills for freezers) but they can't have unlimited space to store them and the smell must have been grim they must have eventually needed to get rid of the bodies somehow?

 

[existentialist]

Why would you let rotting corpses pile up in your building? I get they might not want to pay cremation fees (or electric bills for freezers) but they can't have unlimited space to store them and the smell must have been grim they must have eventually needed to get rid of the bodies somehow?

I suspect it's one of those things where something gets held up (disorganisation, financial problems?), and as the system starts to break down, more and more delays happen, denial kicks in, and before long they're spending more time trying to manage the crisis rather than staying on top of things, rinse and repeat.

 

[pbsmooth]

...or so they think

Urn with Lemmy's ashes to be displayed at Bloodstock festival

The urn containing the Motörhead frontman's ashes will go on display at Bloodstock festival.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Plumdaff]

It's awful. I hadn't thought they stop refrigeration, that moves it into the truly macabre.

I think it's easy to overlook just how much people can be in denial, and how quickly one or two bad decisions can enable an appalling clusterfuck.

I suppose that's why I'm massively keen on regulation, state intervention, and not having owner or stakeholder profit as the motivating factor in almost all human interactions.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Fuck knows how they managed without serious fly control and an odour neutralising system.
We had a dead something or other (I suspect rat) in the vicinity of a switch room once and I couldn’t walk in there without gagging.

 

[WouldBe]

Why would you let rotting corpses pile up in your building? I get they might not want to pay cremation fees (or electric bills for freezers) but they can't have unlimited space to store them and the smell must have been grim they must have eventually needed to get rid of the bodies somehow?

Liquidised then down the drain.

 

[cupid_stunt]

And, time and time again, we then encounter situations where self-regulation really hasn't worked at all. I'm not one for massive state interventionist stuff, but it seems to me that, even if you are going to have "light touch" regulation via trade bodies, it shouldn't be optional, and there needs to be some oversight of the regulatory process itself.

I know a partner in a local independent family run funeral directors, established just short of 100 years ago, and I remember him regularly talking about inspections, so I was somewhat surprised to find that there's no requirement for FDs to be registered, nor be a member of a trade body that carries out inspections.

Checking their website, they are members of all three of the major trade bodies, which doesn't surprise TBH, they are a decent bunch - they did all the funerals of the Shoreham Air Show disaster victims free of charge, and avoided making that public and cashing in on media coverage, I only found out by complete accident some years later, and he was embarrassed that it had leaked out.

 

[Spymaster]

I know a partner in a local independent family run funeral directors, established just short of 100 years ago, and I remember him regularly talking about inspections, so I was somewhat surprised to find that there's no requirement for FDs to be registered, nor be a member of a trade body that carries out inspections.

Checking their website, they are members of all three of the major trade bodies, which doesn't surprise TBH, they are a decent bunch - they did all the funerals of the Shoreham Air Show disaster victims free of charge, and avoided making that public and cashing in on media coverage, I only found out by complete accident some years later, and he was embarrassed that it had leaked out.

I used to play cricket with a funeral director. One of the funniest blokes I've ever met, which I always felt belied what he did for a living. He was fascinating to talk to and told me all about the preparation processes for viewings, and how they were often called out to suicides (including one fella who stood in front of a train and they had to find the pieces). I asked him if he got freaked-out working in a shop full of stiffs. He said not at all "they're dead, they can't hurt you. It's the live cunts you need to worry about"!

 

[cupid_stunt]

I used to play cricket with a funeral director. One of the funniest blokes I've ever met, which I always felt belied what he did for a living. He was fascinating to talk to and told me all about the preparation processes for viewings, and how they were often called out to suicides (including one fella who stood in front of a train and they had to find the pieces). I asked him if he got freaked-out working in a shop full of stiffs. He said not at all "they're dead, they can't hurt you. It's the live cunts you need to worry about"!

BiB

Yeah, this guy is also one of the funniest blokes I've ever met, they are specialists in doing burials at sea, and what's involved is those is fascinating.

 

[WouldBe]

BiB

Yeah, this guy is also one of the funniest blokes I've ever met, they are specialists in doing burials at sea, and what's involved is those is fascinating.

Launched off the deck of an aircraft carrier and see how far they skim before sinking below the waves?

 

[spitfire]

Launched off the deck of an aircraft carrier and see how far they skim before sinking below the waves?

Do you have to be dead to do this?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

They keep mentioning the number of bodies involved, but without any frame of reference. Like is 35 a lot of bodies to be in a funeral home or a reasonable number? I have no idea.

 

[brogdale]

They keep mentioning the number of bodies involved, but without any frame of reference. Like is 35 a lot of bodies to be in a funeral home or a reasonable number? I have no idea.

Sounds like a tragically large number if none of them should have been there.

 

[Silas Loom]

Wasn’t there an embalmer who used to post here?

E2A: Yes, madamv - she was very helpful on one the many corpse disposal threads which were so popular a decade ago, pointing out that the old two bodies in one coffin trick wouldn’t fool crematoria because it would show up in some sort of output metrics.

 

[PTK]

This is truly grim, so much so I'll put it in spolier.

Spoiler

The body of a 78-year-old grandmother was left to decompose at a funeral parlour at the centre of a police investigation for seven weeks, her relatives have claimed.
Susan Stone’s family and friends gathered at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hessle Road, Hull in January for her funeral before mourners were told her body would be taken off for cremation.

But seven weeks later the Stone family, who are from Hull, received a call from Humberside Police informing them that Mrs Stone’s body was still inside the funeral parlour without being refrigerated.

According to reports, the body was too decomposed to the point dental records will be required for formal identification before she can be cremated.

https://archive.ph/aIqdY

These monsters need long jail time.

Oh, that is too cruel.

 

[Spymaster]

Oh, that is too cruel.

'Liked' for grammatical accuracy.

 

[xenon]

Related to the other thread, you know the weirdo couple with a dead baby. This is a universal thing isn’t it or cultures would be appalled by treating dead bodies this way. Never mind the neglect in the other situation. Just beyond wars extremely stressful tragic situations failing to treat dead bodies with a modicum of respect is a massive taboo..

 

[A380]

Do you have to be dead to do this?…

Well, not at the start…

 

[andysays]

Weird story gets weirder

Former Hull trawlerman given 'wife's ashes' before her cremation​