Authorities are investigating after human remains at a Chicago funeral home were allegedly found decaying in an unrefrigerated area infested with rodents.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said it was working to identify and determine the condition of the remains of 56 deceased people after it was notified about the improper storage conditions at the South Chicago Chapel funeral home.
The remains were found in “various states of decomposition,” the medical examiner’s office said in a statement on Aug. 6. The license of the funeral home’s owner was suspended, the medical examiner’s office said in an update Aug. 7.
State business records show that Johanna Morgan was listed as the incorporator of the funeral home, while Clark Morgan was listed as president.
Johanna Morgan’s license as a funeral director and embalmer was suspended by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The regulatory body said the suspension was due to Johanna Morgan “allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies.”
Clark Morgan had a license as a funeral director and embalmer intern registered with the regulatory body, which was revoked in 2024. Morgan was also fined $10,000 “based on practicing as a funeral director and embalmer intern on an expired license and unprofessional conduct,” records show.
USA TODAY has reached out to the South Chicago Chapel through an email listed for Clark Morgan on an archived version of its website, which was down Aug. 8.
According to reports from CBS News Chicago, Clark Morgan previously operated Heights Crematory in Chicago, which was shut down last year by Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza. At the time, Mendoza said that remains of deceased people at the crematorium were being stored in inoperable refrigerated trailers or coolers, and that bodies were “stacked in improper conditions.”
Mendoza said in June 2025 that revoking Heights Crematory’s license would ensure “its owners will never operate a crematorium in the state of Illinois again.” USA TODAY has reached out to Mendoza’s office for comment on the new allegations.
“It is really disgusting and upsetting to find out that they’re still at it, and I had said back then, these folks will figure out a way to circumvent the system,” Mendoza told CBS Chicago after the latest news came out this week.
“I don’t know how there’s not like a microscope on this entity. You know, the Morgans literally run a house of horrors in their businesses,” she told the outlet, adding that funeral homes are under the purview of a different agency.
Earlier this year, two Colorado funeral home co-directors were sentenced to decades in prison for a scheme that involved hiding 200 decomposing bodies. Their crimes were discovered after neighbors in October 2023 reported smelling a foul odor.
