Body left to rot in funeral home 3 years leads to charges

Two South Carolina funeral home workers have been charged with desecration of human remains after authorities say they left a woman’s body to rot in an unrefrigerated room for nearly three years.

Lawrence Robert Meadows and Roderick Mitchell Cummings, both 40, were indicted on Friday by a state grand jury. The charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Meadows and Cummings were supposed to cremate 63-year-old Mary Alice Pitts Moore after her funeral in Greenwood in March 2015, but instead left her body in a locked room under blankets and surrounded by air fresheners, and even moved her body from one funeral home to another 65 miles away, according to a lawsuit filed by Moore’s family.

Roderick Mitchell Cummings is seen in an undated photo provided by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. A grand jury on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 indicted Cummings and Lawrence Robert Meadows, who have been charged with desecration of human remains after authorities say they left a body to rot in an unrefrigerated room for nearly three years. (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division via AP)

Lawrence Robert Meadows is seen in an undated photo provided by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. A grand jury on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 indicted Lawrence Robert Meadows and Roderick Mitchell Cummings, who have been charged with desecration of human remains after authorities say they left a body to rot in an unrefrigerated room for nearly three years. (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division via AP)

Moore’s remains were in such an advanced state of decomposition when found in February at First Family Funeral Home in Spartanburg it took two weeks of reviewing medical records to confirm her identity, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said.

The state Board of Funeral Service revoked the license of First Family Funeral Home earlier this month after complaints from Moore’s family and others.

Meadows lost his funeral director’s license in April 2015 in an unrelated matter after he forged the signature and other information on a life insurance document after the person with control of the policy refused to use it to pay for funeral services, according to state records.

He is the brother of MSNBC presenter Craig Melvin, who in 2017 did a story about Meadow’s fight against colon cancer.

Cummings has never had a funeral license in South Carolina, according to documents.

Moore passed away from natural causes on March 26, 2015, and her family held a Celebration of Life service in her honor. Afterwards, her body was supposed to be cremated and returned to the family.

The lawsuit and indictment don’t give any reason why the funeral home kept Moore’s body for nearly three years. The Post and Courier of Charleston obtained sworn statements from the State Law Enforcement Division that said that Cummings and Meadows kept the remains because the family didn’t pay its bills.

The newspaper first reported on Moore as part of a series detailing poor oversight of funeral homes around the state.

Moore’s husband of 38 years, Fred Parker Jr, said another funeral home went ahead and cremated his wife’s body. Her ashes sit in an urn in his Greenwood trailer home beside a tiny portrait taken from her driver’s license – it’s the only photo he has.

‘Three years,’ Parker said to the newspaper. ‘How would you feel? It gets worse every day just thinking about it.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk