The badly decomposed bodies of 11 infants were found in the ceiling of a former funeral home on Detroit's east side, Detroit police said.
The remains were found by construction workers at about 5:30 p.m. Friday at the former Cantrell Funeral Home at 10400 Mack Avenue at Garland, about 10 blocks east of the Indian Village neighborhood, police said. The workers notified police, who investigated along with technicians of the Wayne County Medical Examiner, officers said at the scene.
The infants' remains were found hidden in a drop ceiling inside the funeral home, which was shuttered by state authorities in April, after they found numerous violations of state law. The violations included storing embalmed bodies in an unrefrigerated garage and other unsanitary areas, allowing them to deteriorate. One body was kept from January until April before it was cremated, according to state officials.
The funeral home, which had operated for half a century, also had committed numerous other violations of state rules, such as the failure to deposit more than $21,000 in prepayments by at least 13 customers who'd signed contracts for future funeral services, according to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Also in April, state regulators suspended the funeral home's license and suspended the individual mortuary science license of the manager, Jameca LaJoyce Boone, according to state website.
Overall, state officials had charged the operators of Cantrell Funeral Home with "fraud, deceit, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross negligence in the practice of mortuary science," according to a report issued in April about the decision to close the business.
In particular, the state says that anyone "who converts funds paid pursuant to a prepaid contract to his or her own use or benefit. . . is guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both," according to the website of the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
