Arkansas Funeral Care in Jacksonville
State regulators are investigating a Jacksonville funeral home after a former employee complained about “blatant disregard for the dead.”
The Arkansas State Board of Embalmers & Funeral Directors opened two files Tuesday concerning conditions at Arkansas Funeral Care, where Mike Jones, a licensed embalmer and funeral director, said he witnessed substandard conditions, including dozens of bodies, some of them “stacked on top of each other outside the cooler.”
Jones’ complaint, received by the board on Monday, names the mortuary’s manager, LeRoy Wood, and an embalmer, Ed Snow. Arkansas Business could not reach either Wood or Snow on Thursday. They have 15 days to respond to the state board.
In an interview with Arkansas Business, Jones said he was fired by Arkansas Funeral Care on Jan. 6 for what he called a “trumped up” complaint. On that day, he said, he used his cellphone to shoot video showing conditions at the funeral home, and he believes he was fired because someone saw him collecting the evidence.
Jones shared video with Arkansas Business, but its authenticity could not be independently confirmed. The 30-second video shows a large room crowded with tables holding what appear to be bodies, some of them not completely covered.
Jones, who lives at Beebe, said he had retired two and a half years ago after 40 years in the funeral home industry. In August, he said, Arkansas Funeral Care approached him about coming out of retirement.
During his five months there, Jones said he complained constantly about lack of adequate equipment and improper procedure.
“I’ve never seen an embalming room in that kind of shape,” he said.
“The only reason I’m doing this is not because I was let go,” Jones said. “I can go back to enjoying retirement. It’s respect for the dead… Families don’t deserve this. There are bodies that have been back there literally three weeks waiting to be cremated.”
In his complaint, Jones accused Snow of cremating two bodies at once. But asked about that by Arkansas Business, Jones said he had not personally witnessed such a violation but believed that it had happened.
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