The couple behind the South Chicago Chapel funeral home where 55 decomposing, unrefrigerated bodies and more unmarked cremated remains were discovered during a state inspection in August returned to the funeral home today. And so did some family members of the people whose remains they allegedly mishandled.
Clark and Johanna Morgan were met by their lawyer and city inspectors in the parking lot and were let into the building at 95th Street and Exchange Avenue by a board-up crew.
Clark and Johanna Morgan outside South Chicago ChapelMike Krauser
Police were standing by, having been made aware that family members would be there and things could get tense.
Marshawna Campbell was on the sidewalk outside. Her mother’s remains were handled by the couple.
She was asked what she wanted to say to them.
“I didn’t wanna watch my mama suffer again,” she said “I already watched her suffer for a whole year. I didn’t need to watch her suffer again. Like, y’all putting us through so much pain again, like, we couldn’t even celebrate my mama being gone for six months with the urn because we don’t know if it’s her in the urn. We don’t know what’s in the urn.”
The funeral home was shut down after the bodies and cremated remains were found.
South Chicago ChapelMike Krauser
The city filed a lawsuit against the funeral home over building code violations.
Before the initial discovery of the bodies, neighbors had complained of foul odors coming from the building.
The operators remain under investigation. They have not been criminally charged.
Family members like Campbell want to see them in jail.
It was last year when the two were involved in a similar situation with decomposing bodies at a crematory in Chicago Heights.
The Heights Crematory was also shut down.
