Indiana prosecutors say a funeral director misused his customers’ prepaid funeral money, cremated humans and pets together, and gave the wrong ashes back to families:
A southern Indiana funeral home director faces more than 60 charges for allegedly defrauding families of money and delivering bogus cremated remains to others.
Richard D. Pyke was already in jail at the Clark County Detention Center facing similar charges. On Tuesday, prosecutors filed an additional 36 charges against him, including theft and insurance fraud.
Asst. Chief Prosecutor Jeremy Mull says Pyke mishandled money intended for a cemetery trust fund, which was established for families who pre-paid for burial services.
Indiana State Police found human bodies and several dogs at Pyke’s crematorium in May, some of which had begun to decay.
Pyke also faces charges of violating Indiana’s cremation statute for allegedly providing families of the deceased with bogus remains. Some of the latest charges deal with infants, whose bodies were found in a refrigeration unit at Pyke’s funeral service in Henryville, Indiana.
WDRB-TV has the whole story here.
