Indiana funeral director pleads responsible to theft after 31 decomposing our bodies had been discovered at a funeral house

An Indiana funeral director pleaded responsible Friday to dozens of counts of felony theft after 31 decomposing our bodies and 17 cremains had been discovered at his funeral house final yr, court docket data present.

Randy Lankford, proprietor of Lankford Funeral House and Household Heart in Jeffersonville, can pay $46,000 in restitution to 53 households and faces a proposed sentence of 12 years — 4 years in jail and eight years of house incarceration, The Related Press reported.

Lankford pleaded responsible to 43 counts of theft the place the worth of the property is between $750 and $50,000, court docket data in Clark County present. He had been charged with 86 counts of theft and one depend of corrupt enterprise affect, in response to the data.

The theft cost was for failing to finish the funeral companies he was paid for, in response to the AP.

Lankford will stay in custody below house incarceration till a sentencing listening to on June 23, in response to the data. 

He nonetheless faces a number of lawsuits from folks whose family members had been among the many our bodies or cremains discovered at his funeral house final July. 

Police in Jeffersonville made the invention after the native coroner’s workplace alerted the division to “circumstances” on the funeral house on July 1, in response to a petition from the Indiana Lawyer Basic in search of to droop Lankford’s license.

Authorities discovered that three of the ability’s 4 air conditioners weren’t working, in response to the petition. Our bodies in physique luggage had been saved in numerous rooms, the petition states, and several other had been there for an “prolonged” time period. 

The our bodies had been in varied levels of decomposition, the lawyer basic’s workplace stated.

In a civil grievance filed final week, a pair stated Lankford despatched them a plastic field final June purporting to include their daughter’s stays. 

The couple later discovered that their daughter hadn’t been cremated in any respect — she was among the many decomposing our bodies found at Lankford’s enterprise.

The swimsuit accuses Lankford of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional misery and breach of contract.