Funeral home owners, exec face charges

Arrest warrants issued for 3 in Jacksonville; one jailed

Arrest warrants were issued Monday for the two owners and one general manager of a Jacksonville funeral home that was shut down in January after an inspector reported that it had violated state regulations regarding the storage of bodies.

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Jacksonville police obtained the warrants Monday after the Pulaski County prosecutor's office on Friday charged Arkansas Funeral Care owners Rod and LeRoy Wood, as well as Edward Snow, the general manager of day-to-day operations, with 13 counts each of corpse abuse.

Arrest affidavits released Monday state that the men continued to take bodies "when there was nowhere left to put them" and "began placing bodies wherever they could find a space for them in room temperature."

Police arrested Snow, 63, about 2 p.m. Monday, and his bail was set at $26,000. He remained in custody later that evening, the Pulaski County jail roster showed.

According to an arrest report, Snow will appear in Jacksonville District Court on June 25.

Rod and LeRoy Wood had not been arrested late Monday. The affidavits say LeRoy Wood, 86, was funeral director and part owner of Arkansas Funeral Care, and Rod Wood, 61, was part owner in charge of finances. The documents do not disclose if the two are related.

Officials with the state Crime Laboratory and the Pulaski County coroner's office removed 31 bodies and 22 cremated remains from Arkansas Funeral Care on Jan. 21 after a state funeral board investigator reported finding a cooler "filled beyond capacity with bodies," including bodies "stacked on top of each other" and "seven bodies outside of the cooler that had not been embalmed."

Of the 31 bodies, 13 are believed to be victims of corpse abuse, according to the affidavits. Bodies were "in various stages of decomposition,"and some showed signs of "extreme decomposition," the affidavits state.

"Bodies were stacked on top of one another, on pallets, on the washer and dryer and on every available space they could find," the affidavits read. "Coffee cans with deodorizer were placed next to bodies to help with the odor in the room."

Leslie Stokes, an inspector with the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, began an investigation into the funeral home after receiving a complaint in mid-January from Mike Jones, a licensed embalmer and funeral director and former Arkansas Funeral Home employee.

On. Jan 20, Stokes turned over her investigative notes and photos to the Jacksonville Police Department. The state funeral board temporarily suspended the funeral home's license the next day, and the bodies were removed.

Arkansas Funeral Home was closed Jan. 23 when LeRoy Wood voluntarily surrendered his and the funeral home's licenses, as well as the home's crematory license. The home was fined $10,000.

During a criminal investigation in February, Jacksonville Detective Cindy Harbour interviewed all Arkansas Funeral Care employees except for LeRoy and Rod Wood, according to the affidavits.

Employees told Harbour that work was "overwhelming" in January because of "an unusual number of death calls," the affidavits read.

"There were several requests made by the employees for additional help, equipment, and overtime," the affidavits state. The requests were denied, and "according to them, they couldn't afford additional cooler space, beds or overtime."

The affidavits state that LeRoy and Rod Wood were in the process of starting a new funeral home in Alma.

Also contributing to the "large number" of bodies stored at Arkansas Funeral Care was the home's policy to not cremate or provide services until payment was received in full, the affidavits state. The policy led to bodies being kept when customers had to make payments over a period of time.

As of Monday, a total of nine civil lawsuits had been filed against Arkansas Funeral Care: three in late January, two in February, three in March and one in April. One lawsuit each has been filed in Lonoke, Garland and Miller counties, with six filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

The funeral home and LeRoy Wood were named in all nine lawsuits, and Snow is named in three.

Metro on 06/16/2015

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