Family Seeks Criminal Probe Of Va. Funeral Home

MATTHEW BARAKAT

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A man who says his father's body was left for months to rot in the garage of a funeral home when he was supposed to be buried with military honors is asking for a criminal investigation.

Richard Morgan Jr. of Harrisonburg hand-delivered a letter Monday to the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond Morrogh, arguing that the National Funeral Home neglected the remains of his father, Maj. Richard Morgan, so badly that it constitutes a felony under state law.

"Placing my father's corpse in a garage, unrefrigerated, cannot be characterized as anything but willful and intentional," Morgan wrote in his letter, noting that defilement of a corpse is a felony under Virginia law.

The elder Morgan's casket was not buried for several months after his November death because the family was waiting for a full military burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The younger Morgan was told that the body would be refrigerated while it awaited burial.

Morgan's demand for a criminal investigation comes after The Washington Post reported Sunday that National Funeral Home and its parent company, Houston-based Service Corporation International, routinely neglected corpses and sometimes left them stacked for months on racks in an unrefrigerated garage to rot.