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An Indiana widow’s lawsuit accuses a Crown Point funeral services provider and Chicago-based crematory of mishandling her husband’s remains and failing to cremate his body in a timely manner.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Lake County Commercial Court, alleges negligence and breach of contract against Crown Cremation Service LLC and Heights Crematory Inc., a Chicago-based business that Crown subcontracted with for the cremation procedure.
Both defendants are currently under investigation by authorities in Illinois and Indiana for the improper storage of human remains. Heights has since been shut down by Illinois authorities, according to the Daily Southtown.
In March, two journalists from CBS News Chicago reported that the bodies of several deceased individuals were found stacked on top of one another in a sometimes open trailer outside Heights’ facility.
The bodies were found partially wrapped in sheets or clear plastic bags with their faces and body parts sticking out, according to CBS News.
Crown Cremation Service is being questioned by regulators in Illinois over its relationship with Heights Crematory and its use of a trailer on Heights’ property to store the bodies of Indiana residents without an Illinois license, CBS News reported.
Neither Crown Cremation nor Heights Crematory immediately responded to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment.
The plaintiff in this case, Darla Smith, entered into a contract with Crown shortly after her husband, Darryl, died on Aug. 4, 2024. Within the contract, Crown informed Smith that Darryl’s body would be properly cremated within five to seven days.
However, the lawsuit says Darryl’s body was not cremated until Aug. 23, 19 days after he died, and that it was one of at least 100 corpses that were improperly stored in trailers by Heights.
Because of this, and because of the indignities his body faced, Darla Smith questions whether the remains she received actually belong to her husband, according to court documents.
“Since this lawsuit was filed, our firm has been contacted by dozens of individuals with stories and concerns like Darla Smith’s,” attorney Gabriel Hawkins of CohenMalad LLP, who is representing Smith in the case, said in an email. “We’ve spoken with people that describe bodies of loved ones being lost, delays of weeks or even months in receiving cremains, and ashes that appear abnormal. Families across Indiana and Illinois are questioning the integrity of the cremation process at these facilities, and we are actively working to determine how many were affected and how long this potential pattern of mishandling has gone on.”
Smith is seeking a jury trial in the case.
The case is Darla Smith, Darryl Smith, Deceased v. Crown Cremation Service, LLC, Heights Crematory, Inc., 45D01-2504-PL-000232.
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