Body left in abandoned funeral home
 

Web Posted: 06/19/2009 11:54 CDT
Body left in abandoned funeral home
By Ariel Barkhurst - Express-News

Police are investigating the discovery Friday evening of a body in funeral dress inside a casket at the abandoned Forest Park Funeral Home on the city's East Side, authorities and media reports said.

When the owner vacated the space last week, she left the body of the elderly Ada T. Young there because the family could not pay for a funeral service, Willy Hardy, an administrator for Forest Park, said late Friday.

Hardy said the funeral home had been in possession of Young's body since 2004, when she died and received a chapel funeral service. Her closest surviving family member — a granddaughter — could pay for neither the chapel funeral service or burial, Hardy said.

“I have always carried that body,” Hardy said. “Every time we went to a new location, I had that body with me. I helped them.”

But when Forest Park last week vacated the location in the 1900 block of Rigsby Avenue, where the body was found, Hardy said he did not move the body.

“I have a very ill sister,” he said, “and she's at hospice, and I had a tough week from an illness perspective, and I didn't get around to doing anything about it. But she's been dead since 2004. And her granddaughter has not done anything about it.”

The body was found around 7 p.m. by a man seeking individuals who had worked at Forest Park, KENS5 reported.

Body left in abandoned funeral home