Court records show that last year, 31 decomposing bodies and 17 cremains were found at the funeral home of an Indiana funeral director. On Friday, the funeral director pleaded guilty to dozens of counts of illegal theft.
The Associated Press said that Randy Lankford, the owner of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville, will have to pay $46,000 to 53 families as restitution. He also faces a proposed sentence of 12 years: four years in jail and eight years of home detention.
Clark County court records show that Lankford pleaded guilty to 43 counts of theft involving items worth between $750 and $50,000. According to the reports, he was charged with 86 counts of theft and one count of bribery in business.
The tweet below verifies the news:
Indiana funeral director pleads guilty to theft after 31 decomposing bodies were found at a funeral home https://t.co/alQZZowVTc
— MSN (@MSN) May 27, 2023
The AP says that he was charged with theft because he didn’t finish the funeral services he was paid for.
Records show that Lankford will stay in jail until a sentencing hearing on June 23. He will be kept in jail under home incarceration until then.
People whose loved ones were among the bodies or cremated parts found at his funeral home last July are still suing him.
According to a petition from the Indiana Attorney General to suspend Lankford’s license, police in Jeffersonville made the finding after the local coroner’s office told them on July 1 about “conditions” at the funeral home.
According to the plea, authorities found that three of the four air conditioners in the building were not working. The letter says that bodies in body bags were kept in different rooms and that some of them had been there for a “extended” amount of time.
The office of the attorney general said that the bodies were in different stages of breaking down.
In a civil complaint that was made last week, a couple said that Lankford sent them a plastic box in June that they thought held the remains of their daughter.
Later, the couple found out that their daughter had not been cremated at all. Instead, she was one of the bodies that were found to be decomposing at Lankford’s shop.
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In the lawsuit, Lankford is charged with being careless, causing mental pain on purpose, and breaking a contract.
A call left at a number listed for Lankford on Friday night was not answered right away. Lankford’s lawyer didn’t answer right away when asked for a reaction.
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