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

An Indiana funeral director pleaded responsible Friday to dozens of counts of felony theft after 31 decomposing our bodies and 17 cremains have been discovered at his funeral dwelling final 12 months, courtroom 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 dwelling 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, courtroom data in Clark County present. He had been charged with 86 counts of theft and one depend of corrupt enterprise affect, in accordance with the data.

The theft cost was for failing to finish the funeral providers he was paid for, in accordance with the AP.

Lankford will stay in custody below dwelling incarceration till a sentencing listening to on June 23, in accordance with the data. 

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

Police in Jeffersonville made the invention after the native coroner’s workplace alerted the division to “situations” on the funeral dwelling on July 1, in accordance with a petition from the Indiana Legal professional Basic in search of to droop Lankford’s license.

Authorities discovered that three of the power’s 4 air conditioners weren’t working, in accordance with the petition. Our bodies in physique baggage have been saved in several rooms, the petition states, and several other had been there for an “prolonged” time frame. 

The our bodies have been in numerous phases of decomposition, the legal professional common’s workplace mentioned.

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

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

The go well with accuses Lankford of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional misery and breach of contract.