MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG has obtained two new documents revealing more about the timeline showing when a Memphis funeral home allowed rats to partially eat away at bodies in their care.
It happened twice at Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East. According to affidavits submitted by Forest Hill management to the state, of the two impacted bodies, one was a man and the other was a woman.
The WREG Problem Solvers first exposed the issue in a story that aired July 8. It detailed the extent of the infestation based off footage from a Board of Funeral Directors meeting that took place in May.
But the new records obtained from the state showed cemetery officials waited until July 15 to inform the woman’s family. That was a week after our Problem Solvers story aired and four months after the state started investigating.
The Problem Solvers asked StoneMor representative Lindsay Granson why they waited so long to inform the family.
She responded by saying they “cooperated fully with the State during the investigation, complied strictly with the terms of the consent order, including the notification to the affected party, and went above and beyond what was required…”
But the documents from the state also showed Forest Hill did not offer full refunds to these families until mid-July, after the state mandated they do so.
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Paperwork also showed a local pest control company started doing pest control at the facility on July 26.
