Funeral Directors Accused of Taking Insurance Funds But Not Cremating Remains

Funeral home directors in two Southern states have been accused of taking money from insurance policies and grieving families, but failing to return proceeds to the families and failing to cremate or ship remains, state insurance officials said.

In North Carolina, Jeremiah Whitt, of Yanceyville, was charged with failing to return $5,162 in funds left from a life insurance policy after burial expenses were deducted in 2019, the state’s Department of Insurance said in a bulletin Monday.

Whitt had been arrested in June of this year, charged with accepting more than $4,200 from two people who wanted their loved ones’ bodies cremated. Instead of having the remains cremated, Whitt left the corpses in a horse trailer on his family property, according to local news reports.

The bodies were found after neighbors reported a strong odor at the site.

Whitt had also been charged with fraud in 2020 after he claimed to have witnessed the insurance document signature of a woman who had been dead for nearly a year, a North Carolina TV news station reported.

The man is due in court Wednesday on the most recent charges.

In Tennessee, the state Department of Commerce and Insurance warned people to be on the lookout for Reid Van Ness, a funeral director and embalmer. The Spanish-speaking Van Ness is accused of soliciting and accepting money from people to have their loved ones’ remains cremated or shipped to their countries of origin.

Instead, Van Ness has disappeared and so have the corpses, the department said in a bulletin.

The man surrendered his funeral director license in 2020 after he was accused of similar crimes. The last known address for Van Ness was in Madison, Tennessee, but he is known to associate with a funeral home in Kentucky, authorities said.