A grieving Georgia widow was left desperate after the director of a funeral home where her late husband was cremated was arrested for abusing bodies.
Chris Johnson, 39, owner of Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services, was charged with 17 counts of abuse of a corpse on Sunday after a gruesome discovery of 18 decomposing bodies in a cooler inside the facility.
The ordeal has become a nightmare for family members of the recently deceased in the local area, including Douglas native Donna Harper.
The 66-year-old widow now fears the worst after reading about the grotesque discovery in a Facebook post and is working to have her husband’s ashes analysed.
Chris Johnson, 39, was arrested and charged Sunday after Coffee County Sheriff’s Office deputies discovered the remains inside Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services in Douglas.
On Sunday, the owner of a Douglas funeral home was charged with 17 counts of abuse of a corpse after a gruesome discovery of 18 decomposing bodies in a cooler inside the facility. Pictured: Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services in Douglas, Georgia
Along with the many distressed and decomposing bodies found in “various stages of decomposition,” investigators discovered “more than one child, one dog, and one cat” stored inside the cooler.
Agents were serving an eviction notice at the time of the discovery as Johnson reportedly stopped paying rent on the property, leading to his deportation.
Johnson’s arrest warrant said he had “knowingly and intentionally disfigured a corpse while preparing for burial, display, or cremation in a funeral home.”
He added that “willful neglect of his duties as a funeral director and willful disregard for proper storage” led to remains being kept for excessive periods, resulting in severe disfigurement of 17 bodies.
Johnson was denied bail.
Now, what started as an eviction notice has quickly turned into a nightmare for 18 families, as many wonder if they still have the remains of their loved ones.
Donna Harper told the Atlanta-Journal Constitutionthat her husband, Gary, died in June and his services were held later on July 3 in the chapel of Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services, the same funeral home where authorities found the decomposing bodies.
After the services, her husband was to be cremated and some time later she received his ashes, or what she thought were his ashes.
Fearful after the disturbing revelation, Harper has turned over her husband’s ashes to police as she seeks clarity on whether her husband was one of several bodies discovered or whether his remains are in the urn she received months ago.
Donna Harper told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that her husband, Gary, died in June and that his services were held later on July 3 at the chapel of Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services, the same funeral home where authorities found the decomposing bodies. Pictured: the late Gary Harper
After allegedly failing to pay rent, Johnson was evicted from his family’s business.
“I’m waiting for the call,” a fearful Harper told the publication on Tuesday. “It’s bad not being able to sleep because you don’t know if it’s your loved one or your loved ones who are there decomposing.”
But it may be a while, as the bodies had to be transferred to a lab outside the city to undergo a thorough identification process that will begin with the delivery of the final bodies on Tuesday, according to Deputy Chief Fred Cole of the Bureau from the Coffee County Sheriff.
‘I’ll be honest with you: I hope the man rots in hell for what he’s done. … It takes a sick person, a very sick person, to do something like this,” Harper said through tears.
Earlier this year, Johnson ran for the county coroner position but was defeated, receiving just under 29 percent of the vote, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.
After the election, Johnson announced plans to run again in four years.
As of last week, complaints against Johnson had never been filed with the secretary of state, according to the agency’s website. At this point, it is not immediately clear whether or not Johnson has hired an attorney or entered a guilty plea.
Johnson remains in police custody.