Acting on an anonymous tip, police in Detroit made a shocking discovery of dozens of infant corpses hidden inside multiple funeral homes.
by Matt Agorist
Acting on a tip from an anonymous source, Detroit police conducted a series of raids on funeral homes and discovered a situation comprised of something out of a horror film.
Detroit police have since launched a “wide probe” into other funeral homes after finding dozens of infant corpses hidden inside at least two of them.
“This is deeply disturbing,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig said at a news conference, hours after police raided Perry Funeral Home and allegedly seized 63 fetus or infant bodies, more than half of which were packed together in unrefrigerated boxes, according to the WaPo.
“We want to understand the reasons: Is it financial gain? If so, how? Who knew or who else is involved in this?”
The raid on the Perry Funeral home comes just one week after police raided another funeral home in which the bodies of 11 infants were found hidden behind a false ceiling designed to deceive authorities.
“I would like to look at you and tell you I hope … that this is isolated to these two. I can’t say that with certainty,” Craig told reporters, shortly after leaving a meeting with FBI and state investigators.
“This is much larger than we might know.”
Police are remaining tight-lipped on the investigation and declined to speculate as to why the bodies of so many infants are being found in these funeral homes. Craig did explain that a single anonymous tip has led to the massive and horrifying discovery.
One would think that the funeral homes equipped with cremation systems would not get backlogged with a cache of bodies, so the impetus behind hiding infant corpses — literally in the walls — remains a disturbing mystery.
During the raid on the second funeral home, police found “three unrefrigerated boxes containing the remains of a total of approximately 36 deceased bodies of fetuses or infants,” according to a statement from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, “plus a deep freezer containing an unknown number of additional deceased bodies.”
In total, workers with LARA’s Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau found:
- Three un-refrigerated boxes containing the remains of approximately 36 deceased bodies of fetuses or infants plus a deep freezer containing additional deceased bodies. Some of the deceased had dates of death in 2015.
- The funeral home failed to certify and file death certificates for the dead bodies of the fetuses and infants for whom they assumed custody with the appropriate governmental authority within 72 hours of death.
- The funeral home failed to secure permits for removal or burial of dead human bodies before interment or disposal.
- Perry “obtained possession or embalmed the dead human bodies of the fetuses and infants without first being expressly directed or authorized to do so by a relative of the deceased persons or a person entitled to custody,” the release said.
“We will continue following the evidence,” Craig said. “It’s just unbelievable.”
“There’s no connection that we know of between the two funeral homes, but there are similarities, including the improper disposal of fetuses,” Craig said.
“We discussed having a task force operation to investigate this, although that’s preliminary.”
Alluding to just how widespread this issue could be, Craig noted that this problem could spread outside of Detroit.
“We may ask Michigan State Police to help at some point because some of this investigation may take us away from the city of Detroit,” he said.
