Misdeeds by Carlinville funeral home director spur legislative proposals

By BETH HUNDSDORFER

CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

Capitol News Illinois photo by:

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In addition, at least three other lawsuits have been filed in Sangamon County.

No criminal charges have been filed against Heinz to date. The Illinois State Police investigation is ongoing, a spokesman said. It’s been difficult to determine how to charge Heinz, one prosecutor said, under current laws.

Beth Hundsdorfer

Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, proposed his own legislation to criminalize the mishandling of human remains, including providing inaccurate documentation of the identity of human remains, illegally storing human remains and providing remains that are intentionally misidentified. Under Senate Bill 3263, a violation of these standards would be a Class 4 felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation investigators knew for six months about problems at Heinz Funeral Home. Morgan County Coroner Marci Patterson filed a complaint with IDFPR when one of her deputies went to Carlinville and found a decomposing corpse in a prep room.

IDFPR did not take immediate action against Heinz’s funeral director license because if they suspended the license, the agency would have only 30 days to complete an investigation and go to trial, a spokesperson said.

Without any restriction on his license, Heinz continued to operate, continuing to accept bodies for burial and cremation. IDFPR complaints are confidential until action is taken, so those using Heinz Funeral Home for funeral services would have no idea the business had complaints.

In cases where IDFPR does take enforcement action against a licensee, the spokesman said the enforcement actions are published once a month. The public can also look on the IDFPR website to determine whether a funeral director has been disciplined in the past. But the specific conduct leading to the discipline can only be obtained by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

Capitol News Illinois obtained three years’ worth of disciplinary action taken against about 30 funeral home directors. Four licenses were revoked and two were indefinitely suspended

Other cases included relatively minor infractions, mostly for failure to pay state taxes or child support or failure to complete continuing education requirements. More serious infractions included losing a body in transit, driving under the influence of alcohol while transporting a baby’s body across state lines and disposing of a body while there was an ongoing coroner’s investigation into the death.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.