The bodies were found in various states of decomposition, investigators said.5 min readAug 8, 2026 09:17 AM IST First published on: Aug 8, 2026 at 09:17 AM IST ShareWhatsapptwitterFacebookMore than 50 bodies were found improperly stored and decomposing Thursday at a Chicago funeral home. (File Photo)Investigators uncovered more than 50 decomposing bodies stored under unlawful conditions at a funeral home in Chicago on Thursday. The business had been run by a husband-and-wife team who, officials say, had already lost control of a crematory once before over near-identical failures.Illinois regulators have now pulled the licence of one of the home’s funeral directors, saying the deceased had been left in a room with no refrigeration and in a state authorities called “deplorable.”What led investigators to the funeral home?Neighbours had been complaining for months about a persistent, unpleasant odour drifting from the premises, and several eventually took their concerns to city authorities.Acting on a tip from state and local officials, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office sent a team of investigators and forensic pathologists to South Chicago Chapel on Thursday. What they found were bodies in different stages of decay.A statement from the medical examiner’s office said personnel were working through the remains and hunting for paperwork death certificates among them to establish who each person was. Officials cautioned that confirming every identity properly could stretch on for several days, after which relatives would be contacted directly.More than 50 decomposed human remains were found during a licensing investigation at a #Chicago funeral home, state officials say. FOX 32 Chicago's Brittany Toolis joined me with the latest. pic.twitter.com/RdM4sp8B23— Josh Breslow (@JoshBreslowTV) August 7, 2026By Friday, police had walked back an earlier account of the incident, clarifying that the fire department had not, in fact, classified the scene as a hazardous-materials event as first reported. Detectives are now looking into the matter, though no one has yet been arrested. Reporters trying to reach the funeral home by telephone and via its website on Friday got no response.Story continues below this adWhat are families and neighbours saying?By Friday afternoon, a modest gathering had formed outside the funeral home some residents, others simply hoping for word on relatives who had passed.One of them, 55-year-old Latasha Johnson, had buried her mother at South Chicago Chapel only the day before the scandal broke. She later learned that her mother’s body would now need to be autopsied, and that she herself would be asked to formally identify the remains within the next day or two.“I’m discombobulated,” she said. “My heart is broken.”A local advocate, Blaise Von Bruchhaeuser, said the months of unanswered complaints about the smell made the eventual discovery all the more frustrating for the community.Who runs South Chicago Chapel?Corporate filings show Johanna Morgan set up South Chicago Chapel Inc back in 2022. Her licence as a funeral director was pulled on Wednesday, just a day before the bodies came to light. According to the state’s Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the suspension followed findings that she had left multiple bodies in unrefrigerated conditions rife with rats and maggots conduct regulators judged a direct risk to public welfare.Story continues below this adThe same filings list her husband, Clark Morgan, as company president. His own licence had already been revoked in 2024, after regulators cited him for operating with an expired credential and for conduct they labelled “unprofessional,” without elaborating further.According to State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, this is not the first time the Morgans’ handling of the deceased has drawn scrutiny. The couple previously ran a crematory in nearby Chicago Heights, which lost its licence last year after inspectors found bodies stored improperly there too, alongside hundreds of unclaimed cremated remains that had never made it back to grieving families.Most Read“Horrified. Again,” Mendoza said, describing the latest case as “heartbreaking and an abomination.” She added that those affected were “someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, child or friend” and that they “deserve better.”Court filings in Cook County name both Johanna and Clark Morgan as defendants in litigation tied to the Chicago Heights crematory. Neither they nor their listed business representative responded to messages left on Friday. Records place the couple’s residence in Evergreen Park, a Chicago suburb.Story continues below this adThis latest scandal joins a growing list of similar cases nationwide over the past three years. Just last month, authorities in Pueblo, Colorado, arrested two men accused of hiding at least two dozen decomposing bodies behind a concealed doorway inside a funeral home. Before that, 18 decomposing bodies turned up at a funeral home in Georgia in 2024. In 2023 alone, close to 200 decomposing remains were discovered inside a building in Colorado, while a separate case in Indiana uncovered another 31.(With inputs from AP)AdvertisementLoading Recommendations...Advertisement