The remains of at least 56 people were found at the South Chicago Chapel funeral home, a discovery that has shaken the families who trusted the business with their loved ones. Community members who paid for services there are now coming forward, saying they waited weeks or even months for their loved one's ashes and are fearing the worst about what they actually received.
Among those families is Franquella Campbell, who lost her mother to cancer in April. Relatives have described their anguish at not knowing whether the remains they were handed truly belong to their loved ones, with some saying that what they were given did not appear to be ashes at all, deepening the distress over an already painful loss.
Officials say the funeral director at South Chicago Chapel is Joanna Morgan. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has suspended her license as authorities examine what happened at the business. The action against her license came as the scale of the discovery at the funeral home became clear.
According to officials, this is not the first time the family has faced scrutiny. Her husband, Clark Morgan, previously held a funeral director and embalmer intern license, which was revoked back in 2024. The earlier action points to a history of concerns involving those connected to the current case.
That earlier license was stripped after officials found bodies stacked on top of one another at the Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights. The parallels between that previous discovery and the situation now unfolding at the South Chicago Chapel have raised questions about how the problems were allowed to continue.
An official whose office had investigated the crematory, but which does not have jurisdiction over funeral homes, described the latest discovery as heartbreaking and an abomination. The official argued that those responsible belong in jail and called for legislation to criminalize this type of behavior, stressing that accountability should include criminal penalties and not only financial ones.
Families were charged between 700 dollars for basic cremation services and thousands of dollars for full burials at the funeral home. The Chicago Police Department says the matter remains an active and ongoing investigation, as authorities work to determine the full extent of what took place and to answer the families still searching for their loved ones.