Rival funeral home offers help to families of abandoned corpses
Jim Douglas, WFAA
FORT WORTH ? While charges and complaints mount against the Johnson Family Mortuary in Fort Worth, a plain poplar urn could be the closest thing to closure that loved ones will ever get. {{more}}
Eight decomposing bodies were found at the Johnson Family facility last week.
Emerald Hills Funeral Home in Kennedale is working with five of the families to provide cremation and inscribed urns at no cost.
“These families have been through such a tragedy, we just feel like it’s the right thing to do,” said funeral director Greg Schoonmaker. “We’re providing cremation services for them. Our staff is donating all our time. We’re providing urns for each of the families.”
Emerald Hills is also furnishing death certificates, a necessity the Johnsons failed to provide for some of the families.
Mortuary owners Rachel Hardy Johnson and her husband Dondre remain free on bond. Each faces seven charges of abuse of corpse.
On Monday morning, the Texas Funeral Services Commission opened its own investigation for “unprofessional conduct.”
That makes six open complaints the commission has against the Johnson Family Mortuary. Two additional complaints have been processed and are ready to be presented to the commission in September.
Rachel Hardy Johnson apologized in person to one family before she was taken into custody last week, but it will take a lot more to make it right.
Maybe it all starts with a simple gesture of dignity.
“We just want them to have some closure, and be able to put this behind them,” Schoonmaker said.
He expects the cremations to be completed by the end of the week.
