Abandoned Funeral Home That Left All The Caskets

This abandoned funeral home that left all the caskets behind was located in the southern United States. The funeral home was well-known in the local community and helped thousands of families celebrate the lives of their loved ones over the years. However, in more recent years the steady wave of success came crashing down on the funeral home shortly after new ownership took over operations.

Abandoned Funeral Home Caskets — Photo by: @abandoned_southeast

The first sign that trouble was on the horizon began in 2015, when a customer complaint prompted the State Board to make an unannounced visit to the funeral home. Their job was to make sure that the customer complaint was valid and to ensure that the funeral home was “up to code.” During the State Board visit, authorities noted dirty, used embalming tools and equipment that were supposed to be sanitary. They found that the embalming room had not been cleaned for quite some time, as they went on to find undrained Bodily fluids, as well as both Bloody sheets and gowns that were not properly disposed of. One of the authorities later stated that the embalming room “resembled a slaughterhouse” so I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like. The investigation did not stop at the embalming room.

As the authorities began investigating the funeral homes records and finances, more questions quickly arose. The investigation uncovered missing financial documents, which lead to state board placing the funeral home on a 3 year probationary period. If the funeral home could show that they are following through on their commitment to “clean up their act” then they could continue to operate. If not, the funeral home would be shut down immediately. So in 2018, 3 years later, the state board set a hearing with the funeral homes owner. The purpose of this hearing was to give the funeral homes owner a chance to redeem himself, explain the unsanitary conditions and shoddy record keeping, and to resolved that initial customer complaint. Unfortunately for the funeral home, neither the owner or anyone else showed for the hearing. Instead, the owner closed down his funeral home and fled the area.

Once this happened, the state board was left with no other choice but to revoke the funeral homes permit and subsequently, the owners license. In 2019, the funeral home was permanently shuttered by the state. As of 2022, the funeral home still sits vacant, but did recently sell in an auction, so it will be interesting to see what the future holds for this one time successful funeral home.