Florida funeral home accused of leaving ashes in garage

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Posted 6:13PM on Sunday, May 26, 2002

DUNEDIN, FLORIDA - Ten families are suing a Florida funeral home, alleging its former director mishandled corpses, took items from the dead bodies and left cremated remains of at least 100 people in his garage. The allegations against Abbey Parklawn Home & Memory Gardens and its director, Scott M. Daley, have been forwarded to the state attorney's office. The Pinellas County Sheriff's office also is investigating. No charges have been filed, and Daley has denied the allegations. The state took over operation of Abbey Parklawn and in January appointed a new director until the business is sold. The allegations, reported Sunday in the St. Petersburg Times, are the latest in a series of high-profile cases of misconduct involving the funeral home industry in the Southeast. ``When I looked at these depositions, every page was something outrageous. It was sick,'' Mark McGarry of the state attorney's office for Pinellas and Pasco counties told the newspaper. ``My belief is that ultimately the allegations made against Scott will be shown to be false,'' said Bjorn Brunvand, Daley's lawyer. Abbey Parklawn was hired by Pinellas County to cremate and bury the county's poor and unclaimed dead bodies. Last year, the county canceled its $175,000-a-year contract after several bodies were buried in a single grave. The newspaper reported that according to sworn statements from a former employee and past girlfriend of Daley's, the funeral director allegedly took jewelry, clothes and other belongings from bodies and even wore business suits he had allegedly taken. He also allegedly left the remains of at least 100 people in his garage, the sworn statements claim. In a similar case in Noble, Ga., Tri-State Crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh, 29, faces 266 counts of theft by deception after 339 corpses were discovered on the crematory grounds earlier this year.