Funeral home where 31 corpses found has license suspended

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — The license of a southern Indiana funeral home has been suspended after police found more than 30 unrefrigerated bodies there last month, including some that were badly decomposed, the state’s attorney general’s office announced on Thursday.

In a news release, Attorney General Todd Rokita said Randy Ray Lankford of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville agreed last week to surrender his and the facility’s licenses. The move came after Rokita’s office filed for filed for emergency license suspensions with the State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service. On Thursday, the state board approved the suspensions.

“Grieving families must be able to trust that their loved ones’ remains will be respectfully and properly handled,” Rokita said in a statement. “Further, the unsanitary conditions at this funeral home posed a clear and immediate threat to public health and safety.”

The suspensions mark the latest chapter of a strange story that began July 1 when police in Jeffersonville, a suburb of Louisville, discovered 31 unrefrigerated corpses throughout the facility, including some that police said were “in the advanced stages of decomposition.” Officials said the cremated remains of 17 people were also found.

Days later, two families sued the funeral home in Clark Superior Court.

Rokita’s office said in the statement that its investigation is ongoing and requested that anyone with information call its Licensing Enforcement Section.