A furious man claims he was stabbed after confronting a Texas mortuary worker about the disgusting conditions in which he says his mother’s corpse was being kept.
The unnamed man was visiting Richardson Mortuary with his sister, Tamara McGruder, after the pair became suspicious about the working practices there.
When they arrived they say were met with an appalling scene and the man began filming.
The sibling duo say they found bodies exposed to the open air and discovered their mother’s corpse with ‘gnats in her face.’
They saw several bodies stored around the building, which was said to have been undergoing construction, in rooms without any functioning air conditioning.
Some bodies appeared to be entirely exposed to the elements while others were kept in body bags or caskets.
McGruder told ABC affiliate KTRK: ‘It’s bodies in caskets, boxes, plastic bags. It’s no A/C, its gnats. It smells like rotten blood.’
An unidentified worker of the funeral home eventually confronted the two of them and ordered them to leave. But their refusal to do so caused the worker to stab McGruder’s brother in the stomach.
Tamara McGruder (pictured) went to Richardson Mortuary with her brother but they were horrified by the grim conditions their loved one was kept in and began filming
McGruder said: ‘It’s bodies in caskets, boxes, plastic bags. It’s no A/C, its gnats. It smells like rotten blood’
They saw several bodies stored around the building, which was said to have been undergoing construction, in rooms without any functioning air conditioning
‘I said I’m not leaving without my mom,’ Mr McGruder said.
The minor wound allowed him to drive himself to hospital, police said according to ABC 13.
The viral video of the bodies’ grotesque conditions brought other customers to the funeral home checking in on their own loved ones.
Murita Brown told the outlet that her grandmother, Bonnie Ashley, was supposed to have been cremated last month.
‘I saw a lady in purple in the same suit as my grandmother, so I said, “wait a minute, that look like my grand momma”,’ she said.
‘This was March the 21st and she was supposed to be cremated already, and we been waiting on her ashes and nothing having been happening,’ Brown continued.
‘She was a loving person. She fed everybody. She’ll give you the clothes off her back. And she was a fighter. She was in a wheelchair. She was paralyzed,’ Brown added.
‘To see her arm kind of like draped off that stretcher, it’s just, heartbreaking.’
Murita Brown told the outlet that her grandmother, Bonnie Ashley, was supposed to have been cremated last month.
‘I saw a lady in purple in the same suit as my grandmother, so I said, “wait a minute, that look like my grand momma”,’ she said
No charges have been pressed as the worker claimed the attack was in self-defense. The owner may face criminal charges according to Captain Jim Dale of the Houston Police Dept
Demtrious Riley-Sylvester told KRIV that her brother’s remains had been already cremated, or so the funeral home claimed.
‘It’s like some trash or a dog. Just throw him away like he’s trash, and she had me believing. We were just waiting on them to bring the ashes,’ she said.
The viral video also sparked an investigation into the funeral home, which has received 14 complaints over the last 10 years, ABC reported. DailyMail.com has reached out to Richardson Mortuary for comment.
Harris County Constable Smokie Phillips said he knew the funeral home’s owner and that he had been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack.
Phillips said the owner agreed to allow bodies to be moved to alternate funeral homes to be refrigerated.
No charges have been pressed as the worker claimed the attack was in self-defense.
The owner may face criminal charges as Captain Jim Dale of the Houston Police Department said: ‘You could look at abuse of corpse, things of that nature, but we’ll know more as we go through it.’
