Another Funeral Home Scandal in Georgia? Maybe … But Maybe Not

Less than a month after 18 bodies were found in various states of decomposition in a Douglas, Georgia funeral home, another discovery of human remains within the state is drawing comparisons … but should it? The situations may share some similarities, but the details of the new discovery should spotlight some much different deathcare issues.

Leaving little to the imagination

Last week, UK photographer Ben James posted images he’d taken at an abandoned funeral home to his Instagram account (@places_forgotten) and to a Reddit photography forum. The Reddit post, entitled “Abandoned funeral home I went to yesterday. Caskets, chemicals and human cremains all left” garnered 16,000 votes, 2,200 comments … and a report to local authorities.

The 19 images James posted included shots of the embalming room, several from an office or storage areas, and some of a casket selection area that was covered with debris from a heavily damaged ceiling and openings in the roof. Although the images — which have been removed by Reddit moderators but can still be found on Instagram — did not name the funeral home or even the city or state where the photos were taken, names of many deceased were easily visible on labeled bags and boxes of cremains and on dozens of files, including one that clearly reads “Cobb Co. M.E. to sign death certificates.”

One Redditor used this information to identify the facility as Norman Medford Peden Funeral Home and Crematory in Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, and reported the images and the conditions they illuminated to the Marietta Police Department. Within days, five more agencies were involved in an investigation, including local fire and EMS, the offices of the medical examiner, district attorney, and secretary of state, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — which already had its hands full with the Douglas funeral home case.

A dubious history

The media has found multiple points of interest in which to frame this story. While the “discovery of human remains” has led the headlines, some have also raised suspicions about a pending foreclosure, missing owners, allegedly misappropriated funds, and an April 2024 fire that led to the funeral home’s closure.

On Tuesday, April 23, firefighters responded to a fire at Medford Peden Funeral Home. They were able to contain the fire within 22 minutes, and reported that no employees — and “no remains” — were inside. Two days later, reports surfaced that according to a notice posted on April 19, the property was in foreclosure and was scheduled to be auctioned off on May 7. One outlet shared that workers were shuttering the windows and the owners, who were “not ready” to speak to reporters, were speaking to insurance adjusters; it also reported that the fire marshal had not yet “confirmed where or how the fire started.”

In September, one family accused the funeral home’s owners of theft, saying the owners “disappeared” after the fire with $1,000 that the family had prepaid in 2022 for cremation services. In the same report, Atlanta’s WSB-TV stated that “[d]ocuments obtained through the Georgia Secretary of State’s website reveal notices that were sent to the owner in 2021, for failure to file an annual registration. The same documents reveal the business was dissolved the same year because the registration wasn’t filed.”

According to obituaries on the funeral home’s website, the last case they handled was a death that occurred on March 28, 2024 with a graveside service that was held on April 15. The website doesn’t identify the owners of the funeral home or any of its staff, but does have a notice that it is temporarily closed due to the April fire and they are “currently unable to provide new services.”

New and different questions

Fast-forward to last week’s Reddit reveal, which once again shone a spotlight on the seemingly-forgotten funeral home facility — and begs new questions from deathcare that may not be occurring to the general public.

First of all, is it fair for the media to liken the bags and boxes of cremains to the 18 decomposing bodies found in the Douglas, Georgia funeral home in late October? The owner of that facility has been in jail since that discovery and is facing 17 felony charges of abuse of a corpse, even as the GBI works to identify the remains. As the Connecting Directors audience well knows, unclaimed cremated remains are a common and growing problem plaguing funeral homes and crematories. Reports of these funeral homes or community organizations facilitating dignified disposition of these remains — often at their own expense — appear in the media on nearly a weekly basis.

Secondly, who should be responsible for ensuring that remains and sensitive records are removed from funeral homes when they are abandoned or closed for any reason? Certainly, in cases of foreclosure, which are publicly advertised, or when a business is shut down for lapsed licenses, for example, shouldn’t some agency step in to remove and arrange at least temporary secured storage for these items? Of course, buildings are abandoned all the time for various reasons, and furniture, supplies, and equipment are left behind. However, don’t human remains deserve to be treated more respectfully than a desk or filing cabinet?

Lastly — and this isn’t just a question that applies only to deathcare — how can it be legal, or even ethical, for people like Ben James to enter an abandoned building without permission, roam around in a space that is potentially structurally unsafe, expose themselves to various chemicals, have the opportunity to remove items, and then share their findings with a worldwide audience, perhaps enticing others to do the same? There is a large community of “urban explorers” like James who don’t think twice about doing this, and, also like Englishman Ben James, will travel long distances just to accomplish this goal.

As this is a developing story, hopefully more information about the investigation, the whereabouts of the owners, and any pending charges will be shared soon. However, will anyone answer the questions just posed? And will this situation have any impact on the way similar situations are handled in the future?