Police find 63 fetuses in 2nd Detroit funeral home

DETROIT — Police removed the remains of 63 fetuses from a Detroit funeral home and regulators shuttered the business amid a widening investigation of alleged improprieties at local funeral homes.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said officers found 36 fetuses in boxes and 27 others in freezers during Friday’s raid at the Perry Funeral Home. He said he was stunned by the discovery, which came a week after the remains of 10 fetuses and one infant were discovered in a ceiling at Detroit’s defunct Cantrell Funeral Home. Those remains were found after state regulators in Lansing received an anonymous letter.

Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs said the remains found at the Perry Funeral Home were turned over to state investigators, who immediately declared the funeral home closed and its license suspended.

Inspectors from the state’s Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau said they had found “heinous conditions and negligent conduct” at the Perry Funeral Home, including numerous failures to file death certificates and obtain proper permits for burial.

The agency’s statement said Friday’s findings point clearly toward offenses of state laws regulating funeral homes that could be felonies “punishable by imprisonment for not more than 10 years or a fine of not more than $50,000 or both.”

Craig said the investigation into the Perry Funeral Home began after a man who has sued that business over its handling of remains of infants and fetuses saw coverage of the discoveries at the Cantrell Funeral Home and told his attorney to contact police.