More than 50 bodies were found improperly stored and decomposing Thursday at a Chicago funeral home.
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The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said it was notified by state and local officials that bodies were being stored improperly at South Chicago Chapel, located at 2939 E. 95th St.
on Chicago’s Far South Side.
Illinois state officials suspended the license of one of the funeral home’s directors — alleging bodies were being kept in an unrefrigerated area in “deplorable conditions” — and said the owners previously ran a crematory that was shut down after improperly stored bodies were found there.
State business records show that funeral director Johanna Morgan incorporated South Chicago Chapel Inc. in 2022 and her funeral director’s license was temporarily suspended on Wednesday. The state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said the license suspension was due to “a finding that Respondent’s continued practice is a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare due to Respondent allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies.”
The state business records also list Clark X. Morgan as the funeral home’s president.
Blaise Von Bruchhaeuser, who described herself as a community advocate for the neighborhood, said it was upsetting that complaints about a terrible odor had been made for months before the decomposing bodies were found.
Valkiery Velez said she noticed a persistent odor coming from the funeral home while living next door. “I lived there for like a year, so I could smell it the whole year,” she said.
One neighbor, who wanted to be identified only as “V,” said she’s lived directly behind South Chicago Chapel for about a year and has constantly experienced what she describes as a disturbing smell. “It just, like, stinks all the time. Like, it’s so bad,” she said. “I don’t know, like a dead mouse. Like, it stinks.”
Neighbors said they’d complained about the foul odor for weeks.
Patrice Halliburton said her family used South Chicago Chapel for her older sister’s cremation services. They got her ashes back in days after initially being told it would take weeks.
“Well, I came in today just to find out if my sister is one of the bodies that they found,” Halliburton said. “We had her services. They handled my sister’s services on June 13th. They told us it would be two to three months before we could get her remains, but it ended up being like a week. So we’re not sure if they just gave us cigarette ashes. We don’t know and we don’t if my sister is one of the ones who’s left.”
“There’s more fear right now than anger,” Halliburton said. “You know, we want to have time to process it. We don’t—we, we don’t know if Melody is in there or not.
Halliburton’s sister Melody Johnson passed away May 23. They held her funeral services on June 13 and had her cremated at South Chicago Chapel.
A woman named Tarshia Logan told ABC7 that her late husband’s viewing was supposed to be Thursday afternoon at South Chicago Chapel funeral home, but when their family arrived, there was no body and only one person on site. Logan said that person walked away as they demanded answers.
She said her husband’s funeral was scheduled for Friday and now she does not know what to do or who to reach out to.
Latasha Johnson holds her mother’s obituary program, which she said South Chicago Chapel prepared using AI photos of people she doesn’t know. At least 57 decomposing bodies were found in the funeral home Thursday night.
“I’m discombobulated,” she said. “My heart is broken.”
In a statement, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza called the discovery “heartbreaking and an abomination.” “Horrified, again,” the statement said in part.
“These are people — someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, child or friend, and they deserve better,” she said.
Mendoza said “To hear these same operators are doing the same thing again at South Chicago Chapel Funeral Home is infuriating.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson in a Friday statement said he was “horrified” by what was happening at the funeral home and said an investigation into the operation was ongoing.
“Families entrusted this funeral home with the care of their loved ones during one of the most difficult moments of their lives. That trust appears to have been profoundly violated,” the mayor said in the statement.
“As this investigation continues, our hearts are with every family searching for answers,” he said.
In the viral moment that prompted swift official response,
police, acting on a tip, showed up at the chapel Thursday after hearing bodies at the South Deering funeral home were not being stored at or below 40 degrees, as required by state regulations.
About 2 p.m. Thursday, Chicago Police Department officers assigned to the fourth district responded to the South Chicago Chapel funeral home, at 2939 E. 95th St. in the South Deering neighborhood, to help the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation with a license investigation.
Officers were met by funeral director Clark Morgan, who accompanied them on a walk-through of the building. During the walk-through, they found 57 bodies in various areas of the funeral home.
Some remains were reportedly left unrefrigerated in deplorable conditions and infested with rodents and maggots.
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Friday that Johanna and Clark Morgan previously ran a crematory in Chicago Heights, south of Chicago, which had its license revoked last year after authorities discovered improperly stored bodies and hundreds of cremated remains that had never been returned to their families.
In 2025, the Illinois Office of the Comptroller shut down the Morgan’s other business, Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, after investigators discovered “several improperly stored bodies and hundreds of cremated remains that had never been returned to their families.” Mendoza’s office said many of the bodies there were stacked on top of each other, not refrigerated and were partially exposed. “Cremations were delayed and record keeping was abysmal,” Mendoza’s statement said.
As of Friday morning, MEO investigators and forensic pathologists were still assessing the conditions of the remains and searching for documentation and death certificates. “This process could take several days to ensure proper disposition,” the release said.