Investigation of cremains continues
(Archived article @ Newsbank)
Chris Cooper ~ News-Democrat & Leader (Russellville, Logan County, KY) ~ 1/13/2006
Logan County Coroner Jackie Dunlap is asking anyone who had a family member cremated at Memorial Funeral Home and didn't pick up their cremains to contact him through the Logan County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 726-4911.
Dunlap, who is helping in the investigation that is being conducted by the Attorney General's Office concerning funeral home owner Tim Hanna, says there are two unidentified cremated bodies, and he wants to find who they belong to.
Hanna and his business became front page news in early October of last year when he was arrested by the Kentucky State Police and charged with two counts of theft by deception over $300.
Hanna allegedly was withdrawing money from the Federal Trust Fund of Kentucky. People paid Hanna for prearranged costs for their funeral, which he was supposed to deposit into this fund. In some cases, allegedly, the money never made it into the fund. In other cases all or part of the money was deposited, but fake death notices were sent to the funeral fund for the money to be withdrawn. People who are alive and well have found out that they are dead in the eyes of the funeral fund, their money gone.
During beginning investigations, authorities obtained a search warrant for the funeral home and located two boxes of cremains. One was marked with a name and one with an identification number, which matched a number at the crematorium where Hanna did business.
The one that held the name was thought to have been buried almost a year prior and the family of the one that held the matching number said they had already received their loved one's ashes.
Dunlap and authorities exhumed the body of the individual whose name appeared on the box of cremains, thinking that they would find an empty box; however, the grave held a box full of ashes as well, now unidentified.
Dunlap says he believes one of the three sets of cremains belongs to the individual whose name appears; however, he has no idea whose ashes the other two are.
Logan County Sheriff Wallace Whittaker talked with Hanna the last week in December. Whittaker asked Hanna whose cremains were left in the funeral home. Whittaker said Hanna told him four names the cremains could possibly belong to. Coroner Dunlap said he contacted all four families and they informed him they had received their loved one's cremains already.
Dunlap delivered the two sets of cremains to Dr. Emily Craig, a forensic anthropologist who works at the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort. Dunlap said Craig reported the cremains were ground so fine that it was almost impossible to obtain any information about the individuals. He said Craig told him that sometimes a bone or teeth fragments can be found through which identification can be made.
Dunlap said the cremation process is different than it used to be in the past. He said now, when a body is cremated it is also ground up afterward to insure there is nothing but ashes left. According to Dunlap, DNA cannot be extracted from cremains.
“This is a moral issue now,” said Sheriff Whittaker., “We may never know who they are.”
The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are expected.
