Left to Rot: Crematorium Under Fire After Leaving Bodies out in Open for Months
If you need an object lesson in how far our society’s respect for life has fallen in some quarters, you need look no further than Lewiston, Maine.
In something that sounds like a scene out of a Stephen King novel, six families in Maine are suing a crematorium for treatment of their loved ones’ remains that “was so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency,” according to a suit filed earlier this month, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal.
If the circumstances alleged by state investigators and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are true, that’s putting it mildly.
In June, according to the outlet, the Maine Board of Funeral Services agreed that suspensions of the funeral licenses of Kenneth Kincer and his Affordable Cremation Solution of Lewiston should be indefinite after the crematorium was accused of letting bodies rot in its basement.
“The board began investigating Kincer’s business at 643 Main St. in April following complaints that people were unable to contact Kincer or retrieve loved ones’ bodies,” according to the Sun Journal.
“A state investigator found five uncremated bodies in temporary, unrefrigerated storage, though ‘there was no odor of decay at that time,’ according to a report board Chairman Chad Poitras issued June 14.”
Kincer told the investigator at the time that he’d been ill, the Sun Journal reported.
However, after receiving more complaints, a state investigator returned to Affordable Cremation Solution.
According to the Sun Journal, the investigator found a “reddish brown fluid on the floor” under 11 unrefrigerated bodies whose fluids “appeared to flow into the drain,” along with an “odor of decomposition.”
That would be disgusting enough. However, authorities say they’d received far fewer death certificates from Affordable Cremation Solution than there were remains found at the location.
“There were significantly fewer certificates than decedents’ human remains,” the investigator’s report noted. Are we to expect they were misplaced?
Beyond that, the Sun Journal reported there were families trying to obtain possession of their deceased without success.
The June 14 report from the state revealed just how disgusting the scene at Affordable Cremation Solutions was.
According to the Sun Journal, at least eight corpses had sat untreated since mid-May.
The state report noted people “have expressed distress at the inability to contact a responsible licensee.”
“The mental health of members of the public who have the human remains of loved ones at ACS is in jeopardy in connection with the inability to gain access” to the bodies, the report said, “especially to the extent that the condition of non-refrigeration and physical decay becomes known to such members of the public.”
One body, the investigator found, “was too large to fit in a body bag and was accordingly in an unsealed box.”
“The health and physical safety of the public are in immediate jeopardy” because of the conditions at the crematorium, according to the report.
How serious was the issue? In August, six Maine residents affected by the issue filed suit against the crematorium alleging “severe emotional harm.”
In addition, the families said that they weren’t able “to know with certainty that the remains” returned to them “are, in fact, those of their family members.”
In April, Kincer reportedly didn’t think this was an issue.
“I don’t think this is a big deal. We’ve been overrun with work,” he said.
Reports said these bodies were sitting unrefrigerated. Apparently, a refrigerator was too much to hope for when one is being overrun with work, and one’s work involves dead human bodies.
The suspension means that Kincer “may not practice any aspect of funeral service, including without limitation accepting new deceased people’s human remains, forwarding any deceased people’s human remains to a crematorium, holding any funeral service or any other activity of a funeral practitioner.”
As he shouldn’t. As the state reported, there were at least two complaints that individuals couldn’t collect remains after Kincer’s alleged house of horrors took control of the body.
The report noted that “during the time of the death of a loved one, individuals are experiencing grief, stress and loss, making them part of a vulnerable population.”
“The mental health of members of the public who have the human remains of loved ones at ACS is in jeopardy in connection with the inability to gain access” to the remains, according to the report, “especially to the extent that the condition of non-refrigeration and physical decay becomes known to such members of the public.”
“The health and physical safety of the public are in immediate jeopardy” because of the actions of Kincer, the chairman of the Maine Board of Funeral Services said.
And yet, this has been happening for years. Not at Kincer’s establishment, mind you. We just choose not to notice because we’re eroding the value of life through abortion and euthanasia.
Actually, I misspoke — not just eroding, sandblasting. If you can kill a child in the womb, if you can decide a human life isn’t worth living, you can decide the fate of their bodies are fungible.
If there’s a “reddish brown fluid on the floor” and a pesky odor? Nature takes its toll, after all. What, our disrespect for life is supposed to be sanitary?
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
