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Police
to file
criminal
complaint
after
fetus
remains
found
By
COREY
WILLIAMS
APNews.com
DETROIT
- An
anonymous
letter
led
state
inspectors
Friday
to the
decomposed
remains
hidden
between
the
eastside
building’s
first
and
second
floors.
The
fetuses
were
found
together
in a
cardboard-like
box
while
the
full-term
infant
was in a
coffin,
Craig
said.
“They
were
definitely
hidden,”
Craig
told The
AP. “The
way they
were
placed
in
ceiling,
one
would
not have
readily
discovered
them. In
41½
years in
policing,
this is
first
time
I’ve
heard of
anything
like
this.”
The
remains
were
taken to
the
Wayne
County
medical
examiner’s
office
which is
coordinating
efforts
with
authorities
“to
hopefully
get them
identified
and
families
identified,”
spokeswoman
Lisa
Croff
said in
a text
message.
“We have
very
little
to go on
(without)
cooperation
from the
funeral
home
owners.
Everything
is under
investigation.”
No
arrests
have
been
made.
Cantrell
Funeral
Home was
shut
down and
had its
mortuary
license
suspended
in April
after
decomposing
embalmed
bodies
were
found
and
other
violations
were
discovered.
The
suspension
has not
been
appealed
and the
investigation
from
earlier
this
year
remains
ongoing,
said
Jason
Moon, a
spokesman
for
Michigan’s
Licensing
and
Regulatory
Affairs.
Those
violations
include
two
improperly
stored
bodies
covered
in what
appeared
to be
mold and
a third
body
with
unknown
fluids
covering
the
facial
area.
Inspections
also
turned
up an
unsanitary
embalming
room.
The
establishment
also was
operating
with an
expired
prepaid
funeral
and
cemetery
sales
registration.
The
state
says
money
for
prepaid
funeral
goods or
services
had not
been
deposited
with an
authorized
escrow
agent
within
30 days
of
receipt.
Raymond
Cantrell
told
reporters
at the
time
that
some
bodies
were
stored
in the
garage
“so that
we
wouldn’t
have an
aroma
filling
up the
funeral
home.”
“If
I had
them in
the
funeral
home,
then my
funeral
home
would
not
smell
fresh,”
he said.
The
building’s
new
owner,
Naveed
Syed
(nuh-VEED’
SEYE’-ed),
said one
of the
funeral
home’s
directors
called
him last
week
“saying
that the
state of
Michigan
has
contacted
him when
someone
wrote
them a
letter
saying
that
there
are some
bodies
hidden
in the
ceiling
here.”
He
called
the
discovery
“gruesome.”
“The
priority
is to
find out
the next
of kin
for all
those
babies.
And why
they did
it. And
what
actually
happened
and who
did it,”
Syed
said
Monday.
Syed
said he
bought
the
building
last
month
and
plans to
rehab
the
property
and
transform
it into
a
community
center.
“We
were
looking
for a
building
in this
area for
the last
year or
so,” he
added.
“And
when we
got the
news
that
this
funeral
home was
closed,
we
decided
that
this
would be
an ideal
location.”
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